XCOM 2

 PC
User Score
7.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 1694 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,117 out of 1694
  2. Mixed: 275 out of 1694
  3. Negative: 302 out of 1694
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  1. TemplarGR
    Sep 18, 2016
    4
    I was very dissapointed by this game. I am a fun of the original XCOM games, and i played them to death as a kid. Especially Apocalypse, which in my personal opinion is the best of the franchise to date. I played the first game from 2K and while it was very "streamlined" (aka dumbed down), i kinda liked it. Not the best, but certainly a worthwhile experience for a playthrough or two.I was very dissapointed by this game. I am a fun of the original XCOM games, and i played them to death as a kid. Especially Apocalypse, which in my personal opinion is the best of the franchise to date. I played the first game from 2K and while it was very "streamlined" (aka dumbed down), i kinda liked it. Not the best, but certainly a worthwhile experience for a playthrough or two.

    So, i was expecting to like this one as well, and i was VERY disappointed. At launch it was a broken mess, with ton of bugs, ran like sh1t on perfectly capable hardware. It is somewhat fixed today, with far better performance and not that many game-breaking bugs. Still, i don't understand why it has those steep hardware requirements. I am playing it at max settings and it doesn't look that much better compared to the first XCOM.

    As for the game, it is more or less the same thing, with more timers on missions and other minor changes and additions of some new enemies. Again, the changes are welcome, but insignificant. I believe Enemy Within expansion was a larger improvement to Enemy Uknown, than the sequel. And that says a lot.

    It is not a bad game by any means, but it is not a good one either. I am feeling cheated by this. You are better off just playing Enemy Within again. It is cheaper, more feature complete, requires a far cheaper computer to run it, and you won't notice much of a difference anyway.

    All in all, 4.    … Expand
  2. malcolmm
    Jan 18, 2017
    4
    So many issues with this game, I'm glad I only paid $12 for it from Humble Bundle. As usual for a AAA title the "professional" reviews rate the game much higher than the general public.

    First off, the tutorial is terrible, pretty much completely useless. It hardly merits being called a tutorial, it is just a short mission with a few prompts. It misses many important parts of the mission    So many issues with this game, I'm glad I only paid $12 for it from Humble Bundle. As usual for a AAA title the "professional" reviews rate the game much higher than the general public.

    First off, the tutorial is terrible, pretty much completely useless. It hardly merits being called a tutorial, it is just a short mission with a few prompts. It misses many important parts of the mission interface. As for the rest of the game, good luck, no tutorial for what to do back at the base. I did play the previous XCOM but that was years ago, I've forgotten pretty much everything about the game. There is a manual but it is useless, it just repeats what the equally useless tutorial tells you.

    Most of the game consists of video sequences, it is obvious where most of the budget went. The missions themselves are extremely simple yet very frustrating. Still the same over emphasis on luck. Making most of the missions timed was a huge mistake, you mostly have to rush the target with little time for tactics.

    I normally don't buy AAA titles, mostly boring graphics showcases. XCOM2 is a prime example of this, all flash but no substance. Microprose did it so much better, Firaxis has managed to ruin both XCOM and Civilization.    … Expand
  3. Dethstar
    Feb 16, 2016
    4
    I want to like this. It isnt terrible but far from satisfying. They learned nothing from the last one.

    The pros. Still, it is Xcom. Sort of. It looks pretty. Has a nice idea behind it in some elements. Personally, I have never experienced any crashes The cons. This is more strategy than luck. Core mechanics appear to be broken. (ie. Line of sight is really botched, some odd    I want to like this. It isnt terrible but far from satisfying. They learned nothing from the last one.

    The pros.
    Still, it is Xcom. Sort of.
    It looks pretty.
    Has a nice idea behind it in some elements.
    Personally, I have never experienced any crashes

    The cons.
    This is more strategy than luck.

    Core mechanics appear to be broken. (ie. Line of sight is really botched, some odd things happen, at times, the engine itself appears confused.

    I have had an alien run at my squad where they were on overwatch with high percentage chances. They all miss their shots. This is not unusual and the maths does not stack up.

    I have also hit an alien expecting 3 damage (as indicated) and done 7. It doesn't fill you with confidence that the game is ok.

    The odds are very stacked against you which makes it challenging unless your playing on very easy mode. However, what make the game annoying is that the missions are insanely repetitive. Some similarity would be understandable but it is so limited it is ridiculous.

    Worst of all, the missions are in the main time limited so its more a of run through, keep repeating until you get lucky and do it again. Very little strategy involved and at times, it is simply like repeatedly rolling the dice hoping that the line of sight doesn't botch and nothing weird happens until it works out. It isn't fun.

    The Global strategic outlout is very much the same. You are not choosing where you go, the game is really telling you what you need to do and giving a very poor illusion of choice.

    Runs very badly indeed. This is not subjective, I have extremely high 3d mark scores and spend a lot of time and effort building my PC;s (not to mention cash) My Titan X's are running at 1550-1600 during gaming and the CPU 4.7ghz (hexacore) yet the game though smooth doesn't run well. It feels like console port in terms of not being happy with hardware and seemingly not using properly. I see this seems to be across a wide range of builds.    … Expand
  4. choppy
    Oct 2, 2016
    4
    The cosmetics change from Xcom 1, but little else. In order to make it seem like a new game, and to please all the long-war geeks, the difficulty is cranked up in a bunch of artificial ways. Almost every mission has a timer or constant stream of scripted enemy drop-ins. And this is the overall theme of the game: you are constantly being spammed with so many events and non-meaningfulThe cosmetics change from Xcom 1, but little else. In order to make it seem like a new game, and to please all the long-war geeks, the difficulty is cranked up in a bunch of artificial ways. Almost every mission has a timer or constant stream of scripted enemy drop-ins. And this is the overall theme of the game: you are constantly being spammed with so many events and non-meaningful choices that it's almost impossible to keep up with basic tasks, and eventually you will be forced to make a detrimental choice. Strategy gaming at its finest!

    Once again, all percentages are pre-determined at the start of every mission, so an 80 or 90 percentage shot is completely meaningless - it doesn't matter what you do or where you move, from the beginning of the mission it's been determined whether you're going to hit or miss (this is true - search the forums for discussion). You can stand right next to an enemy, going full auto, and still miss every time. So ridiculous. You the mouseclicker aren't even necessary for the game, because everything's already determined. It could just run the percentages itself and determine the same outcome. Your actions have literally no effect on whether you hit or miss - just like real life and real combat, right?

    Given that every mission relies on pre-scripted events and pre-determined enemy placements, the only "strategy" or "tactics" are remembering where the enemies are going to spawn and pre-placing your troops to ambush them. So, the only thing that matters is positioning, based on either luck in the fog of war or your knowledge of previous failures.

    This game might as well be calling "Pathing Manager 2016", since pathing is the only meaningful thing you control and the singular thing that makes the difference between success and failure in the mission. If most of your paths succeed on the first try, you got lucky. If most of your paths fail, suck it up and lose, or try new paths on a reload. And that's it. That's all you do in the entire game. This is obscured by other crap like "Dark Events", which are basically 'pick which 1 out of 3 bad things you want to try to stop' through another 'pick-a-path' mission. Again, totally meaningless for the overall outcome, but it's very deep "strategy", right? Not so much.    … Expand
  5. Avadon
    Feb 7, 2016
    4
    XCOM 2 is challenging, but for the wrong reasons. Most of it comes from the randomness that exists as its core mechanic, from the level design (procedural), to hit chances, to turn limit sizes, to world map events. Whether you'll like it or not depends on what you want out of it.

    Personally, I'd prefer a more tightly designed game that is harder than this (more enemies in maps +bigger    XCOM 2 is challenging, but for the wrong reasons. Most of it comes from the randomness that exists as its core mechanic, from the level design (procedural), to hit chances, to turn limit sizes, to world map events. Whether you'll like it or not depends on what you want out of it.

    Personally, I'd prefer a more tightly designed game that is harder than this (more enemies in maps +bigger maps +more "puzzle-y" encounters), but without the timers and stress and RNG everywhere. I'd rather have developer-designed maps and missions with tough encounters where you need to utilize the terrain and your equipment in the right way, rather than proceduraly generated missions with a turn limit that is barely enough for you to sprint to the objective and destroy it, and then pray as the 4 pods that you aggroed along the way rain down on you from the ceilings and wipe out your entire squad while your overwatches miss. Only to go back to the world map and see the Avatar gaining its 3rd ping in the same week due to RNG dark events.

    XCOM 2 is overwhelming in a way that makes you feel helpless. Because you are. Better read some Reddit threads and restart the whole thing, doing only the absolutely most optimal things. Why do the rest of the options exist again?

    You can mod out all the crazy 8 turn limits and massive random spikes in Avatar progress though. Great. What you are left with then is an extremely easy game. Guess why. Because that's what it is. An extremely easy game, made hard only through RNG rigged to screw you as a core design philosophy. The encounters themselves are easy and the maps are poorly designed, like everything procedural. There's no actual depth. There are no "damn, I'm a genious" moments as you lure an overwhelming force back to a well fortified position with half of your squad lying in the perfect ambush. The game gives you no time to think. No time to strategize. No time to have fun.    … Expand
  6. Bob68
    Feb 7, 2016
    4
    No Pad Support it's a Joke....My pad Xbox 360 don't work...lol
    And just a bugged game with Constant fps drops, hangs, graphical glitch
    unskippable cut scenes andd more...
  7. ZetarXenil
    Feb 5, 2016
    4
    What seemed to be great game, turned out to be another good concept buried under the pile of frustrating bugs, poorly executed mechanics and other annoyances. Game runs really bad, you can frequently get stuck on some of the menus and the amount of bugs is just enormous. They didn't even fix bugs that existed 4 years ago, back in Enemy Unknown. We live in sad times, once again promisingWhat seemed to be great game, turned out to be another good concept buried under the pile of frustrating bugs, poorly executed mechanics and other annoyances. Game runs really bad, you can frequently get stuck on some of the menus and the amount of bugs is just enormous. They didn't even fix bugs that existed 4 years ago, back in Enemy Unknown. We live in sad times, once again promising game gets ruined by the laziness of the devs.… Expand
  8. Mordobb
    Feb 9, 2016
    4
    Chances are, if you loved Xcom1 from fireaxis you will love it. But if you expected more...sorry.
    Its merely Enemy Within with all its tactical shallowness repixelated.
    Tactically its not worth to be called an expansion merely a DLC, which by the way remove the tactical aspect of the game with so many timed missions. The designers (if they can be called so much) of this marvel confound    Chances are, if you loved Xcom1 from fireaxis you will love it. But if you expected more...sorry.
    Its merely Enemy Within with all its tactical shallowness repixelated.
    Tactically its not worth to be called an expansion merely a DLC, which by the way remove the tactical aspect of the game with so many timed missions.
    The designers (if they can be called so much) of this marvel confound masochism with tactical deph (death?), and many sycophants approves.
    Noe the base aspect game although exactly the same is a bit refreshing because now you move and have to take decisions.

    Chances are if you are an old fan of the 90 games. EU, TFTD, Apocalips... you ll hate by what has been said above. Tactical limitation shallowness in tactics...boring after the 15th mission due to the counter.
    Bad designs, bad implementation of good concepts.
    A disaster.
    Wait for sales to acquire it you ll probably gain optimization too and smart modders that will enhance
    the tactical part so it gets bearable.
    Keep playing the long war.    … Expand
  9. Salient0ne
    Feb 13, 2016
    4
    It is unacceptable to release a AAA game in such a buggy and unoptimized state. Is it playable? Sure. However, the constant slowdowns (even at reduced graphics settings), animation bugs, floating heads (armor doesn't load on background characters), and camera bugs definitely take away from the experience.

    It is very clear to me that the publisher said screw the polish, just release it.    It is unacceptable to release a AAA game in such a buggy and unoptimized state. Is it playable? Sure. However, the constant slowdowns (even at reduced graphics settings), animation bugs, floating heads (armor doesn't load on background characters), and camera bugs definitely take away from the experience.

    It is very clear to me that the publisher said screw the polish, just release it. It's been several days now and still no patch to fix any of these issues. $60-$75 for what? A bunch of reused assets on a three year old engine? AND it doesn't run perfectly? That is what really bothers me.

    Is XCOM2 better than the last one? Yeah, the game mechanics fit the setting a lot better. The world map is more interesting, even though it just feels like I'm playing a cheap board game. Is it worth the price they are asking? sadly, no. I should not have bought this, you'd be better served just waiting for the 'complete' version for 10 bucks. If you are lucky, by then it'll run properly.    … Expand
  10. armchairjerk
    Feb 6, 2016
    4
    If you can try this game out before buying it. Very glad I was able to do so before wasting money on this. Maybe with the future DLC and GOTY edition I will change my mind, till then im sad i wasted 4 hours on it.
  11. bellerophon
    Feb 11, 2016
    4
    This is a shame since the devs were starting from a very good background, considering the numerous mods (like Long War) at their disposal on Enemy Unknown. Instead of this,we have now a rushed action type game, something between a blank RTS and a real tactical but with worse RNG, worse LOS, worse Cover animations than implmented in xcom2012, nothing really exciting when you just playedThis is a shame since the devs were starting from a very good background, considering the numerous mods (like Long War) at their disposal on Enemy Unknown. Instead of this,we have now a rushed action type game, something between a blank RTS and a real tactical but with worse RNG, worse LOS, worse Cover animations than implmented in xcom2012, nothing really exciting when you just played Enemy Within with some great mods.
    I can't recommend the purchase for this bad optimized / timer-based-difficulty / pseudo tactical game.    … Expand
  12. Glamredhel
    Feb 6, 2016
    4
    Forget the varied tactics of the first XCOM game. In XCOM 2 all of that has been thrown out the window by making the missions timed and having you start stupidly far from the objective. To cover the distance you will need to have your soldiers use both their turn units to make it in time. This results in not being able to shoot back when you stumble upon the enemies, of which they usuallyForget the varied tactics of the first XCOM game. In XCOM 2 all of that has been thrown out the window by making the missions timed and having you start stupidly far from the objective. To cover the distance you will need to have your soldiers use both their turn units to make it in time. This results in not being able to shoot back when you stumble upon the enemies, of which they usually throw quite a lot between you and the objective.

    Basically missions are summed up as run as far as you can as fast as you can, stumble upon a group of enemies who now get 2 turns (their reveal turn and then their normal turn) to outflank you. If you do make it to the objective after fighting through the enemy you will now have to choose a soldier you don't mind getting killed as they run up to the item that needs to be hacked to stop the countdown timer and are now exposed to being flanked.

    It's like they took the first XCOM game, decided to add 100 new features and then forgot about including any tactical decisions in the tactical missions beyond just run as fast as you can to the objective.

    Can not recommend in its current state.    … Expand
  13. Silverflame
    Feb 8, 2016
    4
    "Hey, Commander! I recently bought this new strategy game. It is called Chess - The X-Com 2 Edition!"

    "An X-Com 2 edition of chess?" the commander replied. "What's different about it, Colonel?" "I'll teach you. You can be the white knights of X-Com, I shall be the black Advent aliens." They started playing. "Ha, I've got you now!" the commander said, grinning, as his knight    "Hey, Commander! I recently bought this new strategy game. It is called Chess - The X-Com 2 Edition!"

    "An X-Com 2 edition of chess?" the commander replied. "What's different about it, Colonel?"

    "I'll teach you. You can be the white knights of X-Com, I shall be the black Advent aliens."

    They started playing.

    "Ha, I've got you now!" the commander said, grinning, as his knight attacked the colonel's bishop.

    "Not so fast! First we need to spin this." The colonel pointed to a roulette wheel that came in the box. "You see, whether a piece can take another piece is random! Fun!"

    The commander seemed unsure about this concept. "That makes no sense," he said. "My knight is clearly right in front of that bishop, and he is well trained, so why would he not succeed? Ah, whatever, just spin the damn wheel."

    A few minutes later, the commander's peasant moved close to the colonel's queen. Quickly, the colonel moved several pieces out of the way and placed a new knight on the board, which defeated the commander's peasant. The colonel was so into the game that he did all this in slow motion, like a kid playing with action figures.

    "What the hell did you just do, soldier?!"

    "Oh, that's a rule," the colonel said excitedly. "The black advents get free moves while it's your turn to play, and some newly appearing pieces even get to hit your pieces without the roulette wheel most of the time!"

    "Are you kidding me?!" the commander said, an incredulous look on his face. "This is not a strategy game if you have random events like this. And in a turn-based game, pay attention to whose turn it is! Oh, and for the love of advent burgers, stop with the slow motion and killing animations already! You're wasting my time!"

    "Sorry, commander, but these are the rules! You chicken? If you'd like, you can just reload your piece and try the same turn again until the outcome suits you. Hmm, come to think of it...basing a game on a probabilistic scheme should always lead people to reload, which means any such system ends up being tedious and no fun for most players. Ha! This is pretty dumb game design, ha ha ha!" The colonel beamed anyway, pretending it was just difficult and challenging.

    "I don't need no frickin reload!!"

    They continued playing, the commander getting more and more frustrated with the strange rules of the game. Despite all odds, he ended up devising an ingenious strategy, circumnavigating the defenses of his subordinate, when suddenly ...

    "Ooh, well," the colonel said. "You lose."

    "What?"

    "It has been 15 turns, and you have not defeated me yet, so you lose," the colonel explained. "Didn't I tell you? The white knights of X-Com only get a few turns to win the match. I already cheated on your behalf and gave you 7 more turns than normal."

    "What in the absolute hell?!" the commander yelled. "That is the dumbest thing I've heard since the incident with the microwave casserole at Black Mesa! On the one hand, I am supposed to devise a strategy to avoid your stupid rules, but on the other hand, you give me no time to do so and waste half of that with roulette! This is not chess, this is not a strategy game, this is a casino!"

    The colonel frowned and took a closer look at the box of the game. "Warning: May cause gambling addiction," he read. "Oh, so that's why I'm so hooked on this thing... Anyway, this casino-chess-simulator comes with a story, but it consists of many, many nearly identical matches like this, more time limits and forced gameplay, and I will also be compelled to explain your goal in every match as if you didn't know it already." The colonel smiled brightly. "We can try that, if you like -- you know, for the benefit of the story!"

    The commander sighed. "Is the story any good, at least? Proper characters that grow and change as the plot unfolds? A fine ending with a shocking twist, a clever idea at its base and an emotionally significant boss battle?"

    "Hmm..." The colonel's face fell a little. "Actually, at the end, I'm just going to throw a large number of pieces on the board for you to defeat, after which I shall act out a meaningless cutscene. The characters have as much personality as a sea slug and come from the planet of hats. Nothing else to it, I'm afraid. On the bright side, these chess pieces and the board are visually really impressive!"

    At that moment, a piece glitched through the table and fell in a stuttering motion to the floor.

    "Alright, that's it!", the commander yelled as he stood up. "I've had it with you and your badly designed games! We are going to use this one for target practice tomorrow! Star Wars Battlefront - The Board Game Edition, is relieved of this position immediately!"

    "Aye, aye, sir!"    … Expand
  14. itmo
    Feb 5, 2016
    4
    Not sure how this game is getting 100%, which equates to a perfect game, when it has more bugs than a bethesda release and I am already over the timed missions. I have done 8 missions so far, and 7 have had a turn limit imposed. The missions are getting boring after 5 hours of play. There are basically 2 mission types, they are, get to the objective within 6 turn, then kill anyNot sure how this game is getting 100%, which equates to a perfect game, when it has more bugs than a bethesda release and I am already over the timed missions. I have done 8 missions so far, and 7 have had a turn limit imposed. The missions are getting boring after 5 hours of play. There are basically 2 mission types, they are, get to the objective within 6 turn, then kill any remaining enemy forces, or, kill all enemy forces and take as long as you want. The stealth mechanic in the game sounds nice but is a pointless element that hasn't been fully developed. In reality, the stealth concept hasn't added anything to the so called strategy part of this strategy game. I am still not sure why the enemy gets a free movement turn during your turn when they discover you, this really makes the whole stealth concept stupid and irreverent. This was a big annoyance for me in the previous game, when the enemy discovers you, they get to move all their units into cover during your turn. Really breaks the immersion and idea of creating a strategy of getting the enemy caught in a cross fire as they can just run off behind some cover. The looting system is a dumbed down element from the previous game, it doesn't matter if you use explosives to kill enemy's , you still get all their crap, corpses, upgrades etc. The graphics issues list is a large one, there are camera issues, line of sight issues, shot through 3 walls issues, see through walls issues, excessive loading times during the missions and loading in and out of missions. In it's current state it is almost unplayable, another game release that doesn't work, just add it to the list. The gaming industry is in an absolute shambles atm.… Expand
  15. Xerxes72
    Feb 7, 2016
    4
    Leaving aside the many technical issues that plagued its launch, from performance issues to LOS malfunctions to vanishing savegames, that (if the first XCOM was any indication) will likely take them months to address and resolve, with XCOM2 Firaxis doubles down on some of the worst aspects of their successful "reimagining" of the venerable classic and stretches even further the definitionLeaving aside the many technical issues that plagued its launch, from performance issues to LOS malfunctions to vanishing savegames, that (if the first XCOM was any indication) will likely take them months to address and resolve, with XCOM2 Firaxis doubles down on some of the worst aspects of their successful "reimagining" of the venerable classic and stretches even further the definition of strategy when it comes to PC gaming.

    Their whole philosophy seems to involve replacing variety of choice and room for maneuver with a linear experience which uses the word strategy only as flavor for those who thought King's Bounty was an RPG. Want to stray a bit from the optimal path on the "strategic" layer, even if you're doing well on the tactical missions? Sorry, dead man walking. And when on the field, every guy in your inexplicably puny squad is essential. Got unlucky and lost a couple of soldiers to randomly spawning enemies, with 10+ still to kill and a stupid clock ticking down? Get used to it-- in Firaxis' twisted world, those things are necessary to cover the lack of a functional AI and a sound design. Aliens will still teleport under the FOW and trigger when they're scripted to while you're hopefully still gaping at the pretty graphics.

    And ahhh, the ultimate insult, the timed missions. It's all part of the same "philosophy", or rather lack thereof. Unless you believe Firaxis included the timers as a way to counter the creeping *their own design encouraged* with a "solution" that's worse than the original problem.

    This is not a strategy game. It's a "corridor strategy" game. It's like calling the latest Call of Duty an open world game. The package is slick but there's no more strategy involved than in your typical CYOA book. If you're a real strategy fan and loved the original series, my suggestion is that you save your money and frustration, wait for Xenonauts 2 and avoid anything with the name "Jake Solomon" in the credits.    … Expand
  16. Cidcaldensfey
    Mar 2, 2016
    4
    XCOM 2 is a decent game on its own and functions much like the previous game. However, it feels like the game itself, for me, is far more frustrating than it is fun. I like the setting and the customization, but it feels like most of it doesn't work well together, in particular customization and the nature of the game. Do you like to spend 20-30 minutes customizing a character only toXCOM 2 is a decent game on its own and functions much like the previous game. However, it feels like the game itself, for me, is far more frustrating than it is fun. I like the setting and the customization, but it feels like most of it doesn't work well together, in particular customization and the nature of the game. Do you like to spend 20-30 minutes customizing a character only to have them get lost due to some bogus rolls?

    Theres also some other nasty things. One of the things that really bothered me was how the 'Concealed' mechanic is actually not really a stealth mechanic. After a certain amount of turns, the AI patrols will walk towards your stealthed characters, basically creating an artificial confrontation when in fact the game itself is programmed to do that.

    I just don't really understand it. It's a neat game but at the same its just flawed. I would wait to buy it when its like, under $20. But other wise just avoid it.    … Expand
  17. Yemm
    Feb 12, 2016
    4
    Old and quite experienced gamer's review:

    Pros: - Xcom universe - Made me want to install Jagged Alliance 2/xcom again, and have some proper tactic rpg/strategy. - casualisation, (more people might get interested in STRATEGY games) -Story is decent and whole world got nice 80's cheap sci-fi vibe (which is good). Con's: - further dumbing down the genre. -Missions basicly finish    Old and quite experienced gamer's review:

    Pros:
    - Xcom universe
    - Made me want to install Jagged Alliance 2/xcom again, and have some proper tactic rpg/strategy.
    - casualisation, (more people might get interested in STRATEGY games)
    -Story is decent and whole world got nice 80's cheap sci-fi vibe (which is good).

    Con's:
    - further dumbing down the genre.
    -Missions basicly finish themselfs without any real tactic. (nope, its not tactic to move from cover to cover
    and clear everything)
    -cartoonish gfx. Its 2016, Just check what unreal enngine can do.
    - U cant crouch or lie down (unacceptable). ATM whole game got more in common with cover based shooter then tactic strategy game.
    -Bugs - opponents shoot/melee through concrete wall. Its unacceptable for this genre.
    - Base building is even more streamlined then before. No hard decisions.
    - weak research tree's, everything is tier based.
    - Boring/bland auto generated missions...
    - Boring, unrealistic sci-fi weapons, 1 type for every tier for each class...
    - 8-12 round timed mission(game got alot of those). Loading screen takes more then finishing this "mission".
    - In game difficulty only lowers weapon hit %, not actuall number/type of opponents, tactical decisions or anything else.    … Expand
  18. SRKNZ
    Aug 5, 2018
    4
    Take a mediocre game franchise and make it worse. That's my impression of XCom 2. The first series was marred by an overly linear controlling approach to base management which is perpetuated in the second game. The horrible GUI is back too with all its quirks and limitations in place. The horrible counter intuitive R&D system is there too and its as confusing and unclear what you areTake a mediocre game franchise and make it worse. That's my impression of XCom 2. The first series was marred by an overly linear controlling approach to base management which is perpetuated in the second game. The horrible GUI is back too with all its quirks and limitations in place. The horrible counter intuitive R&D system is there too and its as confusing and unclear what you are supposed to do as ever. To really show up the glaring shortcomings in the aforementioned a time restriction is imposed making the whole frustrating, joyless experience even more crapulent.

    In short for me there is very little to like here aside from the overriding theme that I felt has been better executed in other titles like Xenonaughts.

    The only upside is the eye candy but its this title is so hamstrung by its awkward and clumsy game mechanics its not enough to really amount to anything significant. Played for a short time and quickly lost interest.    … Expand
  19. Robobob
    Jun 15, 2016
    4
    This is my third time writing a review for this game, each time I've played it more, I've lowered the score further and now I can't drop it any more. I loved the first X-Com:EU and would rate it very highly. (9-10) This was the first game I researched getting a refund on Steam. Turns out I had 2 hours of play and a week or 2 to return it. So, too late for me. So I keep playing just toThis is my third time writing a review for this game, each time I've played it more, I've lowered the score further and now I can't drop it any more. I loved the first X-Com:EU and would rate it very highly. (9-10) This was the first game I researched getting a refund on Steam. Turns out I had 2 hours of play and a week or 2 to return it. So, too late for me. So I keep playing just to get my money's worth. The more I play the more ridiculous $#it I see. A lot of the complaints you read on here are true and I still can't see why anyone can possibly give this game a 10. I understand people have different tastes, but come on! The game is buggy, with lackluster graphics, slow, tedious and terribly unbalanced. I'll give you examples for all.
    The mouse is buggy in that you are not always highlighting the square you are attempting to target and the zooming through different heights of the map is cumbersome. I often target the wrong square. Good thing I save every turn. Reload.
    Graphics. My machine ran the new Tomb Raider on high and 3 years later this game just looks bad. Weird character proportions. Low q textures. The camera is constantly blocked by obstacles.
    Animations in mission are soooo slow making the gameplay of a single mission sometimes taking an hour or more. Why are there long pauses after enemy movement and animations? Why can't we skip through in-game talky cutscenes we've seen a million times?
    In a "tactical" game why is cover so meaningless? Everything, including steel walls and boulders can be blown away with ease. The enemy has mind attacks that ignore cover, are almost always successful, and remove a soldier from the action like Mind Control, Stun, Knock Unconscious, Panic. These are all on EASY missions, no less! There's an attack that ignores cover, drags a soldier to the enemy and traps them doing damage each turn. YAY! There's an attack that depletes all of your troops ammo with in a radius and explodes the next turn if they don't move. So, don't group them too close, yet group them too far and they get eaten up quickly. Many enemies can run up and smack you for obscene unavoidable damage THROUGH WALLS?!? YAY! It seems like there are few actual firefights in this game. You better rush enemies because if they have any cover you chances are about 50%, which feels more like 5%, LOL.
    The one aspect that annoys be the most about this game is that the AI gets a free turn to move to cover whenever they spot you. Starting some missions in stealth is genius, but it means absolutely nothing when every enemy on the map gets a free move to cover when your first soldier is spotted. You have to use Overwatch to get your attacks in, setting them up into position and wasting a whole turn to do this. I think Overwatch made the enemy's free move to cover a necessity and, in fact, ruined this game.
    Save Spamming: You HAVE TO save and save often in this game. The odds are so stacked against you, you can easily lose your best solider in the blink of an eye. This just happened to me in the last mission I rage quit on. 5th level soldier (Cpt?) gets "marked" by an Officer. That same officer attacks and hits. The next 2 Advent troopers attack and hit. 13 hitpoints with Armor and she's gone in one turn, those attacks were 15 square range. YAY!
    Mission Counters: nearly every mission has one in some way. The ones that don't have to rescue 6 out of 12 pedestrians before they are slaughtered with the annoying voice over telling you EVERY turn "commander! People are getting slaughtered out there!" I know, they are on the other side of the map and it's turn 2. YAY!
    Hit percentages are weird. Some enemies have inexplicably lower % for no reason. They can be 2 squares away behind partial cover and 44% to hit? What? They are within arms reach and I can't just shoot them in the face? YAY!
    Finally: The overly complicated and busy World Map. Right away you are slammed with a half dozen things to research, 2 of them critical. Need to start rebuilding your helicarrier, but there is a critical mission addition to build...and you need more power... and you need to build radio to contact resistance. When you get your supply drop you have to fly to that continent and "scan"?!?! for it for a week everytime!?!? A quarter of each month is wasted scanning for valuable supplies! Meanwhile critical missions pop up that you need to get to ASAP.
    I made the very crucial mistake of spending too much of my "intel" currency early in my second playthrough. Well, the enemy started its Avatar countdown project and for me to slow it down I needed to fly to another country. Sound simple? No. I need to stop and contact resistance (5 days) and spend intel on each country on the way to an enemy base 2-3 territories away. Meanwhile more bases are popping up adding to the count down before I can get to the first. Might as well end this playthrough and start over..

    or throw this game in the trash    … Expand
  20. kharnikhal
    Feb 6, 2016
    4
    Under no circumstances is this game even a 7/10. I played about 5 or 6 hours before uninstalling

    It runs horribly. My rig GTX770, Xeon E3-1231v3, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD (runs Fallout 4 high/very high quite comfortably). I turned AA and AO off, turned rest of the settings to medium, and it still runs like crap. Constant fps drops, hangs, graphical glitches, jarring microstuttering, you name    Under no circumstances is this game even a 7/10. I played about 5 or 6 hours before uninstalling

    It runs horribly. My rig GTX770, Xeon E3-1231v3, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD (runs Fallout 4 high/very high quite comfortably). I turned AA and AO off, turned rest of the settings to medium, and it still runs like crap. Constant fps drops, hangs, graphical glitches, jarring microstuttering, you name it.

    Most of the missions are now timed, which means you usually have about 8-12 turns to complete a mission. This heavily encourages running and gunning, which in turn means that you will lose a lot of squad mates, and if you want to keep them alive, well you have to reload the entire mission so you get new RNG-seeds for the enemy shots, and pray to RNGeesus that they dont hit you.

    No more tactical advancement, no more strategy, just run in, shoot aliens, hope that you hit them, rinse and repeat. The game also puts in sectoids against you right from the second mission. They can mind control, raise dead soldiers (which get a HP boost because **** you thats why), use panic attacks, and oh they also have 8 HP (your starting weapons deal 3-5dmg, usually 3 though), and they usually run deep into cover, inside a building where they cant be killed, while they destroy your squad with Psionic attacks that have 100% accuracy. Sounds fair, no?

    Did you get frustrated in the previous X-Com, when the aliens, once discovered, could freely run to cover on YOUR turn? Well, dont worry, because they still do that in X-Com 2 too! The only time this doesnt happen is when your squad is in concealment, but the missions never give more than 2 or maybe 3 enemies to shoot from concealment, and there's no way to regain the concealment. Then you advance on the map, you discover another group of 3 aliens, and off they go, sprinting to cover for free. Because **** you, thats why.

    On the starter weapons you have 4 shots before you have to reload, which further slows you down, because again, yep you guessed, **** you thats why. This couldve easily been 5 or 6 shots.

    Enemies get reinforcements on almost all missions, and you never know where the dropship comes in from, usually behind you, and then, yep you guessed it, they get free movement to cover while they flank you. And you know the reason why.

    An example mission: Need to get to EVAC zone, 3 turns left before mission fails, one of your squad mates is already dead, others on low HP. 2 enemies ahead, between you and the EVAC zone. And boom, reinforcements from the back (they literally appear out of the dark), now you have no cover anywhere on the map, clock is ticking, each enemy shot kills a squad mate, and how did I forget to mention that one of the mission objectives was "Extract all X-Com soldiers", which mean if one of them dies, you have to pick the corpse up (and you cant shoot when youre carrying a body), and get it to the EVAC zone.

    That was mission 3, btw, about 1,5hrs in the game, while youre still in starter gear, starting weapons, starter everything.

    I dont have a problem with challenging games, but only if the challenge is fair. This game is just dice rolling, in timed missions, against superior numbers, superior gear, and superior skill-moves all the time.    … Expand
  21. Spx
    Feb 19, 2016
    4
    This game has been improved from the first chapter but still lacks the re-playability and the freedom of the original xcom. I think it could be a good game for a single campaign but it will become boring very soon. Again very scripted (probability to hit sometimes aren't real). However I would buy this for 20 usd at most. Waiting for Xenonauts 2 ;)
  22. Calendyr
    Jun 9, 2016
    4
    I was looking forward to this game after playing countless hours of X-Com enemy unknown and X-Com enemy within, After purchasing it on steam and waiting 3 hours for it to download and install, I find out it doesn't support the gamepad like it's predecessors did.

    From what I understand, Firaxis signed a deal with Steam to support the Steam controller when it comes out only. So that is    I was looking forward to this game after playing countless hours of X-Com enemy unknown and X-Com enemy within, After purchasing it on steam and waiting 3 hours for it to download and install, I find out it doesn't support the gamepad like it's predecessors did.

    From what I understand, Firaxis signed a deal with Steam to support the Steam controller when it comes out only. So that is a big FU to all users who enjoy playing on gamepad. What a stupid move from Firaxis.    … Expand
  23. nickdos
    Jan 22, 2018
    4
    There are a lot of bugs that remain from XCOM-EU and are because of the engine and persist with XCOM2.
    The game is unbalanced and ridiculous on higher difficulties because of the very short timers.
    I see the reason they added them, but they could do the same thing with a little more lax time frames. Shame that an amateur developer of a mod for EU can do a better job designing a tactical    There are a lot of bugs that remain from XCOM-EU and are because of the engine and persist with XCOM2.
    The game is unbalanced and ridiculous on higher difficulties because of the very short timers.
    I see the reason they added them, but they could do the same thing with a little more lax time frames.
    Shame that an amateur developer of a mod for EU can do a better job designing a tactical game than a AAA studio.    … Expand
  24. uglyNobody
    Feb 7, 2016
    4
    This is the first time I am writing a real negative review for a game. A game I really wanted to enjoy.

    I know XCOM can be a tough game to play. But this time the word "tough" needs to be replaced with whatever suits the following: - I started playing the game on the third of the four difficulty levels, because I know the first game and wanted an intense gameplay experience. I    This is the first time I am writing a real negative review for a game. A game I really wanted to enjoy.

    I know XCOM can be a tough game to play. But this time the word "tough" needs to be replaced with
    whatever suits the following:

    - I started playing the game on the third of the four difficulty levels, because I know the first game
    and wanted an intense gameplay experience.
    I realized that the aim percentage you see while attacking an enemy is seemingly reduced by 15-20% because of the difficulty level. I missed four out of five shots when the percentage was between 65-80%. Long story short: no fun - executing tactics where a disaster. I perfectly flank an enemy to kill him, I miss and get kicked right away losing one of my best soldiers.

    - I started overs four times before I realized, I would have to lower the difficulty. Did that, enjoyed two hours of gameplay, until I went through a routine mission with the first time facing the snake like enemy. The moment one of my soldiers was grabbed and pulled to the this enemy through three walls without any line of sight was the moment I just had to quit this game and give it this review.

    My conclusion unfortunately is that this game is unplayable if you like a strategic challenge, because the game just does not let you execute any strategy - it just keeps kicking you in the face from out of nowhere.

    If you like the story and do not bother about the gameplay experience to much, then play on Rookie and go ahead.

    Definitely not recommended. A pity.    … Expand
  25. HozzMidnight
    Feb 6, 2016
    4
    Promising but released way too soon. I literally can not recall the last game that gave me as much technical difficulties as XCOM 2.

    Very poor FPS on a system that ran Witcher 3 fine on Ultra@1080P. Worse than that, cutscenes that lead to hard locks, some that are 100% reproducible. Wait until there are multiple patches before picking this one up. No idea how this got a 91 from    Promising but released way too soon. I literally can not recall the last game that gave me as much technical difficulties as XCOM 2.

    Very poor FPS on a system that ran Witcher 3 fine on Ultra@1080P. Worse than that, cutscenes that lead to hard locks, some that are 100% reproducible.

    Wait until there are multiple patches before picking this one up. No idea how this got a 91 from the Critics given its current state.    … Expand
  26. AlphaIIOmega
    Feb 11, 2016
    4
    I made an account literally just to write this review. This game is crap, overall. I gave it a 4, because for a game that costs $80 Canadian, I have really high expectations.

    This game is challenging, too challenging. But it's not challenging because it takes skill, it's just challenging because it's REALLY poorly designed, and your success relies almost completely on RNG. I had to    I made an account literally just to write this review. This game is crap, overall. I gave it a 4, because for a game that costs $80 Canadian, I have really high expectations.

    This game is challenging, too challenging. But it's not challenging because it takes skill, it's just challenging because it's REALLY poorly designed, and your success relies almost completely on RNG. I had to stop playing out of frustration, or I was going to break my keyboard.

    The graphics are beautiful, but the combat dynamics are awful. Lazy, incompetent, unintelligent game designers made this game unplayable past the first 10 hours.    … Expand
  27. ForeShadow
    Feb 15, 2016
    4
    Just can't play it like I want to.80% of missions that force you to rush with ridiculous timers. I spend my time reloading saved games when it doesn't go my way. Which is a huge amount of reloads per mission. Timed missions are a great idea, if it occurred once every 7-10 missions, but not every mission with a few exceptions. 1 mistake makes you almost automatically fail the timer. How didJust can't play it like I want to.80% of missions that force you to rush with ridiculous timers. I spend my time reloading saved games when it doesn't go my way. Which is a huge amount of reloads per mission. Timed missions are a great idea, if it occurred once every 7-10 missions, but not every mission with a few exceptions. 1 mistake makes you almost automatically fail the timer. How did this AAA title pass play test and Beta with these timers?

    Difficulty curve of enemies is ridiculous. They start out with overpowered abilities, such as mind control and run behind cover, pull and immobilize, run and melee stun/kill attacks. They all have very high HP.

    Concealment is practically useless and can maybe allow you to get a first free shot.

    This would otherwise be a 8/10 if the timers were removed and I could actually play without reloading all the time. I could live through the initial extremely hard starting missions and having some failed missions, but the timer drops this from 8 to 4 rating.

    Can't even manage to get the mod working or find the timer address in CheatEngine in order to disable it.    … Expand
  28. DutchieSmurf
    Apr 28, 2016
    4
    This is a very boring and repetitive game. I see it more as a remake of the first game due to the lack of new features or gameplay elements. It is plagued with even more bugs than the first one and at the end of the day it's a just a mediocre strategy game...
  29. aimilios
    Aug 3, 2016
    4
    The game is simply too hard in normal mode (can't imagine more difficult settings). One can try more and more approaches by loading and try again, but at some point the game becomes unbeateable. If you even try to expand your team, there's not enough time to do it...
  30. hassall
    Feb 17, 2017
    4
    I spent more time trying to firgure out how to get my fps to run smoother than playing the game, i dont understand why this game runs so badly. The enemies in this game has all the luck and in my first mission 3 of my men died. Im just gonner wait until they patch it or somehthing.
  31. PogoTime
    May 25, 2017
    4
    Why I bought the game: Because there were a lot of good reviews and a perma-death game normally is always a good challenge with its special feeling

    Why the game lost me: Most of the game is so heavy on RNG that this kills my immersion completely. I stopped counting the situations where i sneaked behind an enemy with a shotgun, got initiative; an still misses 100% of the shot. This is    Why I bought the game: Because there were a lot of good reviews and a perma-death game normally is always a good challenge with its special feeling

    Why the game lost me: Most of the game is so heavy on RNG that this kills my immersion completely. I stopped counting the situations where i sneaked behind an enemy with a shotgun, got initiative; an still misses 100% of the shot. This is just too much RNG for me standing 1m behind an enemy and missing with a shotgun....come on.

    And this situations can often lead to complete wipes or death of you teammates.

    This erased all the fun out of this game, cause you can be as good as you want, you will still get screwed by RNG.    … Expand
  32. RealPlayer666
    Nov 9, 2020
    4
    This game is bad. Strongly not recommended. Everything inside is like a one big script (even shooting). 80-95% to shoot a target and miss. Load and one more try... miss again. One more try miss again and over and over again. You can move and shoot but you can't shoot and move at start. Many pointless skills. X-COM extraterrestrial gold edition is much better then this game (2007). AnotherThis game is bad. Strongly not recommended. Everything inside is like a one big script (even shooting). 80-95% to shoot a target and miss. Load and one more try... miss again. One more try miss again and over and over again. You can move and shoot but you can't shoot and move at start. Many pointless skills. X-COM extraterrestrial gold edition is much better then this game (2007). Another game based on very good (legendary) title f...d up. Sad...… Expand
  33. eroeru
    Jan 19, 2017
    3
    It's a piece of garbage software. Runs horribly. Enemy Unknown ran perfectly on high settings, this one stutters on minimal. And looks ugly at it.

    As to the actual contents - it's cheesy and unconcincing as f***. A cut scene fiesta with "epic" music and dumb lines. As to the whole premise of fighting to bring back a commander from 20 years back who is so very special and without whom    It's a piece of garbage software. Runs horribly. Enemy Unknown ran perfectly on high settings, this one stutters on minimal. And looks ugly at it.

    As to the actual contents - it's cheesy and unconcincing as f***. A cut scene fiesta with "epic" music and dumb lines. As to the whole premise of fighting to bring back a commander from 20 years back who is so very special and without whom the soldiers are doomed - f'ing ridiculous.

    Free, more laidback and aplenty tactics options are taken away and you're left with running to some objective and trying to RNG oponents on the way. It also doesn't make an effort in regards to the cool options available - for example, even though there's an option to hear a soldier speak its mother tongue, most speak English. Is it somehow insulting to Americans that other, frankly more interesting languages exist? The few lines for Asian and smaller European languages wouldn't take any money, especially as to how XCOM:EU made the dev lots. This lacking seems just out of fear of alienating Americans.

    First game had a more believable and nicely eerie feel to it. This one's a severely unoptimized flunk.

    To paraphrase a title from fake game journalism: XCOM 2 is a far worse game than its predecessor in almost every way that matters.    … Expand
  34. slipgatecentral
    Feb 7, 2016
    3
    I am raging so hard as I'm writing this. I'm so unbelievably mad right now, my blood pressure is ten times of a normal persons, I think I might have popped a vein or two.

    Firaxis, you made an awesome game and a very decent sequel to a very successful and creative Xcom reboot. You make people emotionally invest into your game, and **** is so intense and violent, it literally makes your    I am raging so hard as I'm writing this. I'm so unbelievably mad right now, my blood pressure is ten times of a normal persons, I think I might have popped a vein or two.

    Firaxis, you made an awesome game and a very decent sequel to a very successful and creative Xcom reboot. You make people emotionally invest into your game, and **** is so intense and violent, it literally makes your balls sweat. This game is always on your ass, and I mean it. I've never played squad tactics that felt like an actual action movie, where there's always a need to rush forward, and you can't just sit back or slowly proceed forward. Everything must be done quick, and this ****faced resistance guy that calls you "commander" only makes things worse, **** about how slow you are and "we must act faster". Oh **** you guy, for ****s sake, It's not like I'm not trying, but why the **** you pushing me so hard?

    Eventually player gets used to this mad pace, and gets better stuff and his squad of cold-eyed assassins will chew through packs of aliens like it's nothing. You get them cutting edge tech and armor that looks so badass, it scares even themselves. You start to feel it, you finally start to think you can make it and push Avatar project back to the stone age. You grow attached to this game.

    And then game ****s your **** up.

    Firaxis, you put this Ironman mode button there for a reason, right? You said something like "Do it only if you want ultimate Xcom experience". Well, I am no **** when it comes to this, I do want ultimate experience. I want to care, I want to be punished for wrong decisions, and greatly rewarded for success.

    What I do not want, is to be ****ed in the ass after playing for 15 hours, like it happened today. My save file got corrupted. The ONLY save file Ironman mode generates.

    What the **** happened to your QA for ****s sake. How could you not see this coming? Where is my backup file? Why do you do this to me?

    **** this, **** this **** I'm done, not playing it again, even if you fix this. **** off.    … Expand
  35. 21-5-73
    Feb 6, 2016
    3
    Things you could do in the original XCOM (1994) and you can't do anymore:

    1. Air combat, because now there is only one vehicle disposable. 2. Inventory management, because now your soldier can' Exchange or drop objects anymore. 3. Shoot more than 4 shots without going ot of ammo, because...? 4. Have several bases around the world, because aliens have conquered Earth and...? and they    Things you could do in the original XCOM (1994) and you can't do anymore:

    1. Air combat, because now there is only one vehicle disposable.
    2. Inventory management, because now your soldier can' Exchange or drop objects anymore.
    3. Shoot more than 4 shots without going ot of ammo, because...?
    4. Have several bases around the world, because aliens have conquered Earth and...? and they are so many there is no way to put up a base even in Antarctica or Gobi desert?
    5. Have a fighting team of more than 6 elements, because now you are a guerrilla leader, and...?
    6. Research more projects simultaneously, because you had several base with several laboratories and several teams, like it should logically be, and now your scientists can only work on one project at time, because...?
    7. Take enemies by surprise, catching them from behind, and now you can do it, but only once during concealment phase, then surprise a hidden enemy is no more possible, because when discovered, enemies automatically see you and go in cover mode.
    8. Plan you tactical battles carefully, using overwatch and advancing slowly to minimize risks, like every good soldier should do, and now it's too often not possible because you are on a turn limit that forces you to dash under enemy fire, because urgency really makes a game more tactical, or so the experts say.
    9. Have tanks fight alongisde human soldiers, using them as disposable scouts, mobile covers and heavy artillery, and now....?
    10. Have a balance in enemies progress, and now you have aliens who can revive their comrades and mind trick your soldiers in 2nd-3rd mission, because the world out there is cruel, and kids must learn frustration and videogames are the best Teachers.

    And I'm not even going to list all the bugs and glitches. Others have done it well enough.

    And now you know.    … Expand
  36. elaintahra
    Sep 14, 2016
    3
    This game is somehow broken. It works really well graphics wise and the base building & unit customization is really good and fun - the mods make it even better.

    But the missions? How is it that 9/10 of the missions they have a 'turn timer'; If you don't do this or that in 6 turns, you lose. This is the case with almost in every mission. This makes the game a constant save/reload -fest.    This game is somehow broken. It works really well graphics wise and the base building & unit customization is really good and fun - the mods make it even better.

    But the missions? How is it that 9/10 of the missions they have a 'turn timer'; If you don't do this or that in 6 turns, you lose. This is the case with almost in every mission. This makes the game a constant save/reload -fest. The tactics that you try to implement mean almost *absolutely* nothing. It does not matter in which position you place your units.. Where ever they are placed they will get shredded in any case. Only way - I mean the only way - to get through the missions is to save/reload through the RNG.

    The animations, they have been copied over from previous XCOM, as has almost everything else. Line of sight - while working OK when shooting - looks like **** when the soldiers stick their gun thru wall and shoot..

    I even tried to play with novice and still it is not fun, the same concept applies.. It should be fun to fail and try a new approach, but soon you realize the new approach matters nothing, only RNG matters. Not that you changed your units to better positions, its all numbers game.. really shameful

    The enemies spawn out of nowhere and each mission tries to be different but in essence they are all exactly the same.

    I can not recommend this game, I really would like to but the missions really are broken.

    + the unit customization
    + metagame in the "ship"
    + performance (looks ok, runs flawlessly)

    - each mission completely same
    - each mission insanely difficult
    - doesn't matter where you place your units, they get killed each time (reload)
    - concealment is a state of the game, it is not something your units can use: when 'concealment' is blown, your units will be seen by enemy all the time, even if behind full cover walls.. lazy lazy lazy programmers..
    - RNG
    - RNG
    - RNG
    - RNG
    - RNG

    As User "Avadon" writes, I agree completely:

    "You can mod out all the crazy 8 turn limits and massive random spikes in Avatar progress though. Great. What you are left with then is an extremely easy game. Guess why. Because that's what it is. An extremely easy game, made hard only through RNG rigged to screw you as a core design philosophy. The encounters themselves are easy and the maps are poorly designed, like everything procedural. There's no actual depth. There are no "damn, I'm a genious" moments as you lure an overwhelming force back to a well fortified position with half of your squad lying in the perfect ambush. The game gives you no time to think. No time to strategize. No time to have fun."

    and Silverflame :)
    ""Oh, that's a rule," the colonel said excitedly. "The black advents get free moves while it's your turn to play, and some newly appearing pieces even get to hit your pieces without the roulette wheel most of the time!" "    … Expand
  37. SHy
    Mar 12, 2016
    3
    X com была одной из первых игры на ПК которую я поиграл это было... черти когда, так что когда вышел прошлый, он пошел на ура он был в новинку... Вторая часть наскучила уже на втором часу игры. Сугубо мое мнение, он игра сырая и сделана "на отвали".
    минусы
    - цена - постоянные паузы(пустая трата времени) - не оптимизирована(просадки до 2 fps) - графика на максимум а картинка на уровне    X com была одной из первых игры на ПК которую я поиграл это было... черти когда, так что когда вышел прошлый, он пошел на ура он был в новинку... Вторая часть наскучила уже на втором часу игры. Сугубо мое мнение, он игра сырая и сделана "на отвали".
    минусы
    - цена
    - постоянные паузы(пустая трата времени)
    - не оптимизирована(просадки до 2 fps)
    - графика на максимум а картинка на уровне 2000 года
    - почти все миссии с таймером(на время)
    - элемент рпг ... ну это трудно назвать элементом рпг
    - свобода действий отсутствует
    - таймер даже в не миссии в целом тебя постоянно куда-то гонят
    можно долго продолжать ... лень
    итог если в первый не играли то будет хорошее впечатление если играли то вторую часть брать не стоит    … Expand
  38. gongal
    Feb 6, 2016
    3
    - Enemies see and attack through the walls
    - There's basicaly no height advantage since everyone can see everyone and aim perfectly through the roofs, walls etc.. more than ridiculous.
    - Patrols are triggered without seeing you, only because your guy noticed them 5 miles away - You noticed the enemy? Don't worry you won't get any tactical advantage since they always see you as well, get    - Enemies see and attack through the walls
    - There's basicaly no height advantage since everyone can see everyone and aim perfectly through the roofs, walls etc.. more than ridiculous.
    - Patrols are triggered without seeing you, only because your guy noticed them 5 miles away
    - You noticed the enemy? Don't worry you won't get any tactical advantage since they always see you as well, get a free turn to position themselves behind covers. Lazy lazy programming and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ design.
    - Removed secondary weapons because too much tactical depth. You have to reload your plastic guns every few turns.
    - There's nothing that makes sense for this game being a PC exclusive, as it's basicaly an overall dumbed down experience.
    - They were praising Long War all this time, but made basically no changes to the overall formula. There was a massive amount of improvements in Long War that they were very much unable to include in the sequel.
    - Turn timers for each mission...
    - No optimalization aka game runs like ♥♥♥
    - 3 of my soldiers were killed by exploding walls while shooting in the overwatch stance
    - Awesome Enemy Unknown music was replaced by a stereotypical hollywood strings.
    - You can't realistically hide in this game, because even if you are positioned behind a solid concrete building, waiting to ambush an enemy, you are instantly exposed and being shoot through the walls.

    I can't even imagine what kind of people design their games in firaxis. It's just unreal.    … Expand
  39. ScienceAdvisor
    Feb 6, 2016
    3
    Hit expand to see this with proper spacing. Metacritic threw a 503 error and erased my original review. Since most of it was a warning about the poor design/performance, this will just be a point form listing of the cons (too few pros to waste time on). This could never *honestly* be considered a 10/10, even with a reviewer optimized copy unless you are essentially brain-dead as to whatHit expand to see this with proper spacing. Metacritic threw a 503 error and erased my original review. Since most of it was a warning about the poor design/performance, this will just be a point form listing of the cons (too few pros to waste time on). This could never *honestly* be considered a 10/10, even with a reviewer optimized copy unless you are essentially brain-dead as to what the term gameplay means. Anyone claiming the gameplay is the same as the previous release clearly has not played this.

    Cons

    -Performance Issues

    -Run&Gun as missions are ~85% timed now (artifical and pathetic attempt at difficulty or suspense). This also eliminates the value of all but two classes.

    -Little-to-no tactics or strategy (see Run&Gun)

    -Many silly/lazy gameplay elements (RNG used without consideration or believability) both in, and out of combat

    -Scripted elements within the the missions (spawns), and the way the game unfolds at a pace that is far too quickly advanced, robs this of much of XCom 2's advertised replayability

    -No active Physically Based Render engine as it looks nearly identical to their original game, just with higher resolution textures that are not nearly as realistic as the procedurally generated GTA5 car paint-jobs

    Mods will be needed to save this, as Firaxis has shown it does not have a clue. So much for all their promises about listening to fans of the Long War mod. Collapse    … Expand
  40. supercagan
    Dec 18, 2016
    3
    If you like squad tactics games play Jagged alliance, even the old one is better than this one.
    Locate the aliens in building... check
    Approach in stealth and surround building...check When all members are in ambush position shoot 1 alien out of 4...check The other 3 aliens go alert, jump out of the building, pass all the team members as they watch, run down the street and hide behind    If you like squad tactics games play Jagged alliance, even the old one is better than this one.
    Locate the aliens in building... check
    Approach in stealth and surround building...check
    When all members are in ambush position shoot 1 alien out of 4...check
    The other 3 aliens go alert, jump out of the building, pass all the team members as they watch, run down the street and hide behind a truck. Now my guys cant shoot them because they are behind full cover, and the next turn I miss three 90% shots and the aliens shoot once and kill my sniper...
    UNINSTALLED, not to mention the other 2 groups of aliens hear all the explosions and do not do anything because they did not see me behind the corner yet...

    Horrible AI
    Horrible team tactics -especially aliens run 100 yards and hide behind cover when you are discovered
    Would definitely Uninstall again...    … Expand
  41. I3ordo
    Oct 4, 2021
    3
    Xcom is disbanded and what remains is a small faction and underdog!
    then WHY THE HELL the mission REQUIRES me to both rescue hostage, and then KILL ALL Remaining enemies on map? Why can't i get the hostage and F off? Cause , everybody calls you the "COMMANDER" but Firaxis is the actual commander and Demands you what do as exactly told and dont accept anything else.
    First game was    Xcom is disbanded and what remains is a small faction and underdog!
    then WHY THE HELL the mission REQUIRES me to both rescue hostage, and then KILL ALL Remaining enemies on map? Why can't i get the hostage and F off? Cause , everybody calls you the "COMMANDER" but Firaxis is the actual commander and Demands you what do as exactly told and dont accept anything else.

    First game was alright because it was based of some one else's work, now it s the second game and we all saw how moronic the melodies came out of their own guitar.    … Expand
  42. Woohoohoo
    Feb 6, 2016
    3
    To say it briefly, XCom 2 is to turn-based strategy what Call of Duty is to first-person shooters (a corridor shooter with no gameplay freedom whatsoever).

    Golden age games (1994 Xcom, Jagged Alliance, etc) gave player full freedom to decide how game's going to play. XCom 2 is for some dumb reason very scared of this, and what you get is boundaries at every aspect. Numerous mods to    To say it briefly, XCom 2 is to turn-based strategy what Call of Duty is to first-person shooters (a corridor shooter with no gameplay freedom whatsoever).

    Golden age games (1994 Xcom, Jagged Alliance, etc) gave player full freedom to decide how game's going to play. XCom 2 is for some dumb reason very scared of this, and what you get is boundaries at every aspect. Numerous mods to those games which expand freedom even more should be very clear message what players want. I guess people at 2K just don't care about this and imagine that average player is paralyzed, braindead and and of course, extremely bad player.
    No ammo, inventory management is basically non-existing, and even seemingly free movement on globe is constantly broken up by game forcing you with "critical" missions. I swear it took 6 times to finish one "contact rebels" quest (which takes 4 game days) due my Avenger being constantly called off to the other side of world due some "crisis". The game even forces you to have full squad all the time, unless you take time to manually remove soldiers each time before mission. Why?

    XCom remake wasn't good game to begin with - compared to original, and they just managed to dumb this down and restrict player even more. For a PC exclusive, I also wonder why almost whole tactical combat can be played with plain keyboard... in 2016.

    Storyline is rushed and interesting for maybe 10-year old, especially insultingly bad ending with some Dragonball Z or whatever going on. Science is not interesting (unlike in 1994 original or recent Xenonauts) and I found myself not even reading at research results after few tries. Game is ridden with bugs and runs very choppily here and there. Final mission is harder than one in XCom: Terror from the Deep, and that is saying a lot!

    Graphics look like it were developed for Playstation 2, but still pop-in and break at any chance. Music, now without Michael McCann, feels mostly like stock hollywood "heroic scene" soundtrack, which also kills all and any mood previous game had and doesn't even come close to "Fear simulator" the 1994 game had.

    Long story short, get Jagged Alliance 2, install 1.13 patch and you'll forget XCom 2 existed in about 5 minutes. Forever.    … Expand
  43. CockmageLVL99
    Feb 6, 2016
    3
    Here are my thoughts after 10 hours with this game. 10 hours of trying hard to like this game trying to forgive all those bugs and crahes and trying not to get mad when the game's state again is sent to no-responding-land. This is it, I'm done. This is not a kickstarter early access title. This hasn't been developed by a young studio with little money. This is a full priced triple A studioHere are my thoughts after 10 hours with this game. 10 hours of trying hard to like this game trying to forgive all those bugs and crahes and trying not to get mad when the game's state again is sent to no-responding-land. This is it, I'm done. This is not a kickstarter early access title. This hasn't been developed by a young studio with little money. This is a full priced triple A studio title.
    But even with a decent PC which runs games with similar (and better) graphics flawlessly, the performance is disastrous and btw I'm running medium settings. The framerate often drops so hard that it feels like playing crysis 2 on a gameboy. The UI responenses sluggishly. Clicking buttons in XCOM2 to me feels a bit like using a cheap Android smartphone from 10 years ago. XCOM2 graphics overall have not improved that much to justify those high system requirements. In addition I don't like the overall look and feel of the game. It often times is so hard to tell what is going on in this game. The levels are often dark and the colors don't vary much -its like an all dark blue, grey, black soup where you often try to find your soldier's and your foe's position. Don't get me wrong you CAN and WILL find characters but it is exhausting to do. Also because the camera is really bad. It acts like a monkey on steriods trying to capture a michael bay movie. I often times find little me trying to adjust the perspective with spinning and clicking the mouse wheel to zoom in and out and pressing q and e repeatedly for rotating back and forward to find a good view. It's just so unsatisfying.
    Sound design is quite ok but i personally would have liked it a lot more if characters from non english speaking countries would speak with their specific accent just like the characters from Jagged Alliance 2 back in the days. God I miss JA2 -a game where you actually are able to perform tactical decisions. In XCOM2 you now have a turn limit which forces you to rush forward with no cover and get face melted by the enemy.
    Oh and those bugs... god I am so sick of jumping cursors, displaced soldiers, blocked characters, shots through walls and all that stuff.

    If I were you I would wait a few more month until some patchwork has been done and non 2K-designers with a brain brought out a UI mod.    … Expand
  44. Paxton476
    Feb 21, 2016
    3
    Good points:
    Nice graphics and lots of potential for customization, particularly with mods.
    Bad points: Performance issues (lag, particularly in strategic mode ), which seem unrelated to another problem which is that the action is very poorly synchronized, with weird pauses after taking a shot and being spotted by an enemy, for example. Also several other minor bugs such as people    Good points:
    Nice graphics and lots of potential for customization, particularly with mods.

    Bad points:
    Performance issues (lag, particularly in strategic mode ), which seem unrelated to another problem which is that the action is very poorly synchronized, with weird pauses after taking a shot and being spotted by an enemy, for example. Also several other minor bugs such as people shooting through cover/away from target.
    Beyond these presumably fixable issues is an underlying repetitiveness in the game design that gets tedious fairly fast and may not necessarily be saved by modders.    … Expand
  45. PaperMacheMan
    Feb 21, 2016
    3
    I want to give this game a 10 because I love the concept, am a huge fan of the series and I think the intent here is exactly what a good sequel should be like. The problem is that the execution has let this game down completely.

    The game has a wealth of game breaking bugs. Some critical bugs are only just being ironed out now, these are the CTD issues and performance issues people have    I want to give this game a 10 because I love the concept, am a huge fan of the series and I think the intent here is exactly what a good sequel should be like. The problem is that the execution has let this game down completely.

    The game has a wealth of game breaking bugs. Some critical bugs are only just being ironed out now, these are the CTD issues and performance issues people have experienced. What I'm even more frustrated about though are the bugs which break the entire mechanic of the game.

    This game is all about risk reward and the decisions you make. To highlight this it has a game mode - ironmode - which saves every turn automatically. For many fans of the series this is the only way to play Xcom. Save scumming takes out the risk and only gives reward, which makes for a boring game.

    So with that in mind, it makes bugs affecting game-play hugely punishing. Getting shot through the floor when you're in high cover; suddenly receiving a flanked penalty from being exposed when you're clearly not; getting shot through walls etc. It removes the key mechanic in the game. In some games, that's not a problem but in this one, if your squad gets wiped because the game bugged and gave the AI free shots at your squad, that's irreversible and completely game breaking.

    I'm sick of games coming out with these kinds of issues. This is not a hardware based bug but is right in the guts of the code and would have been obvious in any kind of QA process. So they've decided to ship a buggy game and the critic reviews seem to be ok with that, time and time again.

    Well I'm not. I paid $80 AUD and have restarted the campaign because of this. Eventually when and if these bugs are addressed I will have already sunk too many hours into this game for the story to matter.

    DON'T REWARD THIS KIND OF CRAP. SAVE YOUR MONEY AND SPEND IT ON A FINISHED PRODUCT.    … Expand
  46. Foonch
    Feb 23, 2016
    3
    This game is almost good, and i mean Damn good. Then you get a few hours in and it all goes down hill extremely fast...
    I wanted to love this game. I'm a huge X-Com fan. This misses the mark. The flying base the "Avenger" is just a frustrating waste of time, it bogs down the game.
    Some of the new enemies completely unbalance the game. Like the enemy that has the same ability as the    This game is almost good, and i mean Damn good. Then you get a few hours in and it all goes down hill extremely fast...
    I wanted to love this game. I'm a huge X-Com fan. This misses the mark. The flying base the "Avenger" is just a frustrating waste of time, it bogs down the game.

    Some of the new enemies completely unbalance the game. Like the enemy that has the same ability as the Ranger class. Which is lazy and lame, the rangers ability should be unique to your squad. Your going up against a much larger force, they should'nt have the same abilities as you, and this ability allows them to move across vast distances and melee you, and it rarely misses, so basically you'll always have a wounded soldier almost guaranteed every mission once that enemy is introduced.

    When your not in missions the sheer amount of crap constantly going on is ridiculous. Its micro management hell. I understand your supposed to make some hard decisions, and I felt the original remake did a good job of balancing this.
    The sequel we got here though, my god... It's like getting piles and piles of little sticky notes constantly, meanwhile your trying to deal with another pile of sticky notes, and to top it off you are just constantly getting interrupted when you are just trying to get something done!

    Its buggy, choppy, and slow.

    Oh, and the amount of timed missions is completely awful! Once you get a few hours into the game the enemy troop difficulty ramps up VERY quickly. If your lucky you'll barely have magnetic guns at this point, and its not enough...

    Something is just off with this game, and leaves me just frustrated, with little willingness to play it anymore.
    I'm going to try getting a refund. This just just isn't the sequel i thought we'd get. It must have a new lead game designer or something.    … Expand
  47. Sugminfeta
    Mar 2, 2016
    3
    Xcom 2 is bad all the way!

    Rant start: Its stressful, buggy, glitched & bad cheating ai on harder legend mode. Do NOT buy this if you hate things above. And why the time limits on almost every missions?? Idiotic is what it is. Also let me explain what I mean with ai cheating on Legend mode. Why dont just put in more & harder enemys. No they instead put ai that hits    Xcom 2 is bad all the way!

    Rant start:

    Its stressful, buggy, glitched & bad cheating ai on harder legend mode.

    Do NOT buy this if you hate things above.

    And why the time limits on almost every missions??
    Idiotic is what it is.

    Also let me explain what I mean with ai cheating on Legend mode.
    Why dont just put in more & harder enemys.

    No they instead put ai that hits through full cover half the map away.

    Ai that stays right out of your line of sight if your hole squad is on overwatch.
    Sneaks in perfect & stops before your guys get off a shot, even if they dont see my guys, bs that crap!

    Just make the ai with more life & more of them instead of stupid cheating ****

    Also I have completed the game on classic & that was way to easy but the ai didnt cheat at least!
    But the ai is really stupid, so thats why Fireaxis have too cheat on legend mode because they cant make the ai good enough!

    Fireaxis, kick your ai & graphics dudes, they all did a bad job on this game!

    Burp, (wait will get another beer)

    Where was I?? Ehh, fu it..

    Rant over:

    End    … Expand
  48. MCopperhead
    Mar 7, 2016
    3
    Game is good, except of timers in almost every mission. TBS with timers, really, Firaxis? No way. The game is nearly unplayable because of this. No fun at all.
  49. MusclePig
    Jul 24, 2021
    3
    Sometimes you can just tell when a game has been created with no love from the devs whatsoever. This was merely them doing their job.
  50. Mr_Zeedy
    Mar 16, 2016
    3
    I joined just to pan this game because its just ridiculously annoying. I'm a big Xcom fan and so wanted this to be good but its just a big old cheater.
    I thought one of the big ideas of turn based games is that the enemy doesn't move on your turn, not here.
    Sectopods appear almost straight away and start messing with your troops minds' and there is zero defence. Enemies make shots you    I joined just to pan this game because its just ridiculously annoying. I'm a big Xcom fan and so wanted this to be good but its just a big old cheater.
    I thought one of the big ideas of turn based games is that the enemy doesn't move on your turn, not here.
    Sectopods appear almost straight away and start messing with your troops minds' and there is zero defence.
    Enemies make shots you can only dream of whilst your troops miss the massive slob alien that's just magically appeared in front of you when you have no movement points left.
    Tactics are usually irrelevant as your under such a timer pressure you're guaranteed to run straight into a large groups of enemies who will appear out of the ether and you will have no movement left to take cover or run.
    Just now three of my four man squad were panicked when the other got killed for two turns allowing the ai free reign to just march about the map and wipe them all out.
    The enemy moves on your turn, huh? yes that's right a turn based game that ignores who's turn it is.
    add into the mix some rather odd LoS shots, getting shot through scenery, the car your hiding behind exploding without warning and sundry other bugs and its just a frustrating mess.
    I really cant see how people can rate this so highly so felt I just had to say something before other fall foul of the gameplay travesty.
    It's just no FUN at all.    … Expand
  51. JS99
    May 29, 2016
    3
    I like this game, and I hate this game. First off, the Steam Controller does not work after the last patch. It suffers from a double click error which 2k knows about and refuses to fix. The game has many other technical problems, getting shot through walls, crashes, slowdowns, and combat balance problems. The real annoying thing is that your movement range changes at times just to make theI like this game, and I hate this game. First off, the Steam Controller does not work after the last patch. It suffers from a double click error which 2k knows about and refuses to fix. The game has many other technical problems, getting shot through walls, crashes, slowdowns, and combat balance problems. The real annoying thing is that your movement range changes at times just to make the game harder. It's like someone in chess all of the sudden said "Sorry your Queen can't move that far, we're changing the rules at the most critical time, just to make things harder". It's really obvious too, oh look there's the evac zone, why is it that I can actually move past it but not into it? Game programming, "If evac zone yes, subtract 1 space" Really just lazy programming and design all around. FYI, for the "hardcore" guys out there, starting over is just a longer version of save scumming.

    Update: The May patch still doesn’t fix the Steam Controller double-click error. I’ve been unable to play this game as advertised since the March 2016 patch. I’m lowering my review score to reflect a complete disregard for their customers.    … Expand
  52. shag00
    Apr 13, 2016
    3
    The technical issues with this game are terrible, that said, as for the game itself, so much time is spent watching crappy animations that it almost becomes boring playing the game. After every mission several minutes are wasted just waiting until you can do something.

    I wonder how this is never mentioned by the, and I use the term loosely, professional game reviewers. Sitting at your    The technical issues with this game are terrible, that said, as for the game itself, so much time is spent watching crappy animations that it almost becomes boring playing the game. After every mission several minutes are wasted just waiting until you can do something.

    I wonder how this is never mentioned by the, and I use the term loosely, professional game reviewers. Sitting at your PC playing for 10 minutes and watching cut scenes for 3 minutes is not enjoyable.    … Expand
  53. Shatter77
    Dec 29, 2016
    3
    I'm not sure I can finish this game, because it has decided to crash again and again in the same place. Load, do a few moves, quickly save before it crashes may yet get me out oft his crash fest. Nearly a year old, and the game being in this state is unconscionable.

    Further boatload of criticism: - This game is essentially the same as Enemy Unknown: the mechanics are virtually    I'm not sure I can finish this game, because it has decided to crash again and again in the same place. Load, do a few moves, quickly save before it crashes may yet get me out oft his crash fest. Nearly a year old, and the game being in this state is unconscionable.

    Further boatload of criticism:

    - This game is essentially the same as Enemy Unknown: the mechanics are virtually identical.
    - Enemies are still grouped in mobs that get interrupt moves as you discover them, regardless of whether they can see you. Normally turn based games have an initiative stat to govern who goes first. Not here and it practically forces you to try to set up ambushes by reloading then preventing triggering seeing the mob before you are ready.
    - Game play is largely a matter of luck. I do not believe anyone can play this game to the end without relying on save/reload a lot.
    - Wounded team members are out of action for up to a month, which is extremely long.
    - It's extremely easy for your soldiers to die, and extremely time consuming to level them up. I've been playing for 40 hours and more or less just got a few colonel level soldiers. I doubt it's possible to lose a colonel, then level up a replacement before the game ends. So, lose a soldier and you're practically forced to reload.
    - A clock is ticking on the campaign map and nearly every mission also has a turn limit on it. So you are forced to take risks and push forward in a game that ruthlessly punishes that very behaviour.
    - The mouse interface is an insulting afterthought. Drag the world map, and pass an interactive icon will trigger that icon.
    - Did I mention the interface is atrocious?
    - Your base interface has you step through multiple layers with camera swivels in between all the time. Dizzying, useless. Slow.
    - The interface does nothing to help you select the best equipment for your current team, as wounded soldiers are rotated out. In one screen the "make weapons available" button is not there. Mostly those buttons don't even work. Prepare to spend several hours of your playtime hunting for that piece of armour or that weapon that's not on any of the selected soldiers.    … Expand
  54. jebise
    Mar 18, 2017
    3
    I am appalled by this game, it is such a step back from even previous title, let alone first UFO series.

    UI is a disgrace, selecting enemies is done horribly. Game has terrible graphics and runs slowly at the same time. I can play Civilization of Fallout 4 without much of a problem and this game sttuters all the time on low settings. TO me it seems like they fired anyone who knew    I am appalled by this game, it is such a step back from even previous title, let alone first UFO series.

    UI is a disgrace, selecting enemies is done horribly.

    Game has terrible graphics and runs slowly at the same time. I can play Civilization of Fallout 4 without much of a problem and this game sttuters all the time on low settings.

    TO me it seems like they fired anyone who knew anything and developed a game with a bunch of noobs and left quality control for later, after gamers give them feed back and if they will feel like it.

    Do yourself a favor and dont buy this crap.    … Expand
  55. Kif1983
    Dec 11, 2019
    3
    You're gonna want to mod it. It's painfully difficult at the expense of being fun or interesting.

    I started playing on normal, after 5 or so missions I switched to rookie, then a couple more levels later I installed mods. As an example, a mere 5 missions in, a special type of alien pops up. He has armor (limiting your damage), 50 or so health (compared to most mobs 8), plus, every    You're gonna want to mod it. It's painfully difficult at the expense of being fun or interesting.

    I started playing on normal, after 5 or so missions I switched to rookie, then a couple more levels later I installed mods.

    As an example, a mere 5 missions in, a special type of alien pops up. He has armor (limiting your damage), 50 or so health (compared to most mobs 8), plus, every time your characters do something, it gets a full turn. So:
    Character A moves
    It got a turn
    Character A shoots
    It got a turn
    Character B moves
    It got a turn etc

    Because it appeared after a number of previous fights, and I had an objective to deal with, on normal difficulty, it wiped me out before it even got to its actual official turn.

    The next frustrating thing was that a lot of the missions have a turn limit. It's harsh, what it means is rather than thinking and strategizing like you would in the previous titles. You're just running for the goal and hoping someone survives.

    The final frustrating thing is that the game pretends like you have agency, but the moment you say 'ignore' on one of its incredibly frequent pop up missions, (maybe because your soldiers are wounded), it brings up a big read message saying we recommend you don't ignore this, if you do it's gonna ruin your game. It's deviously linear.

    So, mod it to remove / increase turns, mod it to make aiming a bit better, mod it give those boss creatures normal turns... then, you might actually have fun... and, if you don't save scum, it'll still be a challenge; just not a painful one.

    Score is based on the game without mods.    … Expand
  56. reijison
    Feb 5, 2016
    2
    Was hoping for a good game, but the line of sight problems, chance on hit standing next to a unit, and oh my god the just retarded math involved in the game is just mind-boggling so bad...its like nobody ever played the game...I just can't recommend it. I can't believe someone called this fun and signed off on it.
  57. crayven
    Feb 12, 2016
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. PRO
    Superb customization ( I love dollies ) and it makes you care for your troops.
    A bit of graphical improvement.
    FULL destructible environment - anything that can explode and crumble...will if you throw enough "ka-boom" at it.

    CON:
    Timers- you enjoyed taking your time with each mission in EU/EW ?
    Yeah no more of that.
    Now it's run ahead and make mistakes or you lose.
    Catch 22 - you run and die in enemy fire or the god-timer **** you up because reasons.
    Annoyance 6/10

    Enemy free turn.
    Oh you sneak on the enemy? Haha who cares, unless you are concealed ( 50% of missions and only at start ) you get spotted and they TAKE COVER ON YOUR TURN !
    This **** was in EU and EW.
    And it is here.
    Annoyance 9/10

    Difficulty curve.
    I'm not Napoleon but this game is stupidly punishing.
    A SINGLE RNG miss can sometimes snowball into such a mess the whole CAMPAIGN is ruined since your rookies can never take down a sectopod not in a million years.
    Too much RNG.

    Colonel Sniper VS FAT mutton Berzerker in OPEN FIELD with NO COVER =70%.
    Yeah..i don't think so ****

    Oh and 70% = auto-miss usually.
    Annoyance 10/10 !

    RNG is just a trick to hide POOR AI.

    Speaking of AI. There are certain CIVILIAN RESCUE missions where you have to gather autistic "civilians" who run like suicidal idiots into enemy fire.
    So far so good, we're used to this in game.
    The best part is now.
    Enemy troops FLANKED and about to die in the next round - DO NOT retreat or fire at you or take cover or whatever.

    Nope they ...SHOOT THE CIVILIANS as if they KNOW that will hurt your mission ranting more.
    Spiteful AI - google it. This is the very example.

    Awful game, full of bugs, red screen errors and idiotic RNG.
    2/10 for customization - that's it. Rest is garbage.    … Expand
  58. Slaunyeh
    Feb 14, 2016
    2
    Why do profissionals review this game so high and not the gamers. Simple, they are payd for and/or does not have the time or intererest to play it until a certain point.

    And most gamers haven t played enought to get to design traps, or avoided some of them by luck. Many hours played you ll see (on some platforms) are merely save and reload (remember they removed the restart mission    Why do profissionals review this game so high and not the gamers. Simple, they are payd for and/or does not have the time or intererest to play it until a certain point.

    And most gamers haven t played enought to get to design traps, or avoided some of them by luck.

    Many hours played you ll see (on some platforms) are merely save and reload (remember they removed the restart mission option, and modders are unable to bypass it because it activate a "rookifying" "bug" where your soldiers loose all skills for the rest of the missions hardcodded, this seem "on purpose".)

    Save scuming is the timesink that make the "played hours" rise.

    The game is an entire constraint and limit to the tactical choice, it end up being a Save scum because any mistake is probably your last. (tought you ll discover it latter in the game and with many restart all game.

    You lost your A team middle game (by wounded or death)? Game over. You tryed to spread to have ABC teams, most probably game over, as your soldiers probably will end up not being enought skilled to keep up with aliens advancement...skippping missions ? even 1 mission can be a game over (tough you ll still play the rest of the ingame month or you ll just realise this some missions later)

    The aliens advance fast in tech, and any mission you skip will be an advantage to them toward 2 goals:
    - Outclass you in permanent tech advancement or monthly boost;
    - Project avatar advancement.
    The latter ain t that bad, but the former make you outclassed and outnumbered, and if you follow the game "prioritary objective tech" its gameover due to the appearance of endgame ennemies that you won t be prepared to fight unless you already have developed manysecondary to terciary techs.
    Just to be sure you ll follow the wrong path the game press you every mission via someone hammering voiced sentences on you every mission start
    This until you are fed up, extremely irritating. many many repetitive useless voiced stuff.

    There is no way you can win the first second and third or whatever time, not because the AI is smart and challenging, but because the game has many design and executions traps (and bugs like ennemy shotting or grabbing you trough walls) that will make you loose trough the evolution of the history.
    Again You HAVE TO skip what the game hammer into you skull via unremovables voiced sentences or its game over.
    If you do not ignore the constant voice overs you ll meet ennemies early on that are simply designed to be endgame monsters.
    One of those has the following features:
    - Endgame hit point triple of your early hitpoints
    - Multiply themselves each turn, (original create a copy of itself, Nº2 create a copy of itself, and so on up to 4 at least), with halved HP to both original and copy;
    - Are able to disarm you each turn in a broad square (Psy tempest), and if you rearm and shoot your dead because you stayed on the spot, if you flee and rearm it will shoot you or another monster will get to you.
    - Are able to teleport in a broad area (so they always flank you) and shoot, or by the same skill are able to shoot/multiply and teleport behind cover,
    - To kill it, you have to kill all its versions not just the opriginal for example,
    - aim does not degrade with wounds, and its a snipers class.
    - From now ont this monster will appear on EVERY mission forward.

    All this in just 1 monster, you have all the rest still patrolling, far grabbers, runners and disablers, sharp shooters, AND time constraint to execute the mission AND secondary objective that become mandatory.

    Imagine you are playing a steal mission, you end up half dead team, you stole whatever you needed at high cost, you think now i can GTFO... then the "old man" appear and tell you killing ALL aliens on the map is mandatory now, if you don t do it, you get a "mission failure" status and a probable alien boost.
    If your not dead you are wounded, this mean you don t have an A or B to your next mission, this mean skipping or failure -> game over.
    As if it isnt enought recruiting is very costly and you start with very limited number of soldiers.

    Skipping mission hahahahaah.
    No real secondary mission, any mission is mandatory because if you don t attend and/or win a mission you lose territory, which cut you sparce income.
    Which by the way... income. You re income require that you sit in it several days to acquire your income, only those who have played it know how frustrating this feature is due to mission pop ups.
    And so on....    … Expand
  59. jcasetnl
    Jun 12, 2017
    2
    This game is such a hot mess, and couldn't be more disappointing given the amazing blueprint that was set with the first game.

    Like many of the "hardcore" trend of late, it mistakes poor design or outright frustration for genuine fun and challenge. I grew up in the 80s. I know those games well. You want hard? Beat Ghosts 'n Goblins on one quarter and come talk to me. If they took    This game is such a hot mess, and couldn't be more disappointing given the amazing blueprint that was set with the first game.

    Like many of the "hardcore" trend of late, it mistakes poor design or outright frustration for genuine fun and challenge. I grew up in the 80s. I know those games well. You want hard? Beat Ghosts 'n Goblins on one quarter and come talk to me. If they took save-scumming out of this game, all the people saying, "git gud, n00b" in response to valid criticism would also be trashing this game.

    At the heart of the problem is this is a tactical, methodical game that was force-fed high-fructose corn syrup. It comes in the form of mission timers for nearly every mission you'll play. And like pounding can after can of soda, it doesn't take long before you're sick of it, and start to ask an obvious question: "why did they think this is fun?"

    Then there's the broken game mechanics, like that time you ran your guy behind their guy and stuck your gun into the back of his head and it says you have 90% chance to hit? Yeah, sorry, that's more like 50/50. See this game is so clever it knew you'd do the, ya know, LOGICAL thing, so they made that not work anymore! So clever. Such good game design! 10/10!

    Seriously, check around the forums. I kid you not: the most oft-repeated strategy is to run forward and chuck grenades, for the main reason that grenades will hit 100% of the time. Let me be clear: in a turn-based, tactical game. 1) Run forward. 2) Chuck grenades.

    And I tried it. And sadly, they're right. The absolute dumbest, guaranteed to get your squad wiped move is a great idea in this game. That's how BROKEN the RNG outcomes are! No, you don't save grenades for tactical opportunities, like when two or more enemies are bunched up or you get in a jam. You throw all your grenades up front and pray it's enough that whatever's left over won't be able to full-wipe your squad in the face of the RNG screwing you over for the remainder of the battle. Gaming at its finest.

    XCOM 2 is the out-of-the-box paradigm shift of game design we don't deserve, didn't need and never asked for. Save the world? Nah. Save your money.    … Expand
  60. rbx775
    Dec 22, 2018
    2
    Amateurish crap, like the first xcom remake.
    I really love the artstyle though, it has a stylistic element to it which make the graphics both very readable and characteristic! GJ Artdirector!
    Also leveldesign & audiodesign seems to be well done. The gameplay let me down though, simply because it seems to rubberband you out of your silliest decisions. (maybe even your smartest, cant    Amateurish crap, like the first xcom remake.
    I really love the artstyle though, it has a stylistic element to it which make the graphics both very readable and characteristic! GJ Artdirector!
    Also leveldesign & audiodesign seems to be well done.

    The gameplay let me down though, simply because it seems to rubberband you out of your silliest decisions. (maybe even your smartest, cant tell... ;P )
    => was surrounded by 4 aliens upclose and they werent able to kill me after even 6 attempts.
    I made stupid choices => didnt die => deinstalled Xcom2.

    Hate rubber-banding whatever the inclination.
    rubber-banding isnt a sign of smart gamedesign, its a sign of stupid audience. You Loser.    … Expand
  61. Bobsagoth
    Feb 5, 2016
    2
    First time reviewing game here due to this unoptimized pile of game. Not giving this zero as there are some elements that i kinda like in here but the sum of all not so good elements is far greater that the positives.

    To get started the first thing that puts me off from this is the enemy movement. Setting up ambushes and the triggering the end of concealment is ok but having    First time reviewing game here due to this unoptimized pile of game. Not giving this zero as there are some elements that i kinda like in here but the sum of all not so good elements is far greater that the positives.

    To get started the first thing that puts me off from this is the enemy movement. Setting up ambushes and the triggering the end of concealment is ok but having reinforcements drop in byt transport and then allowing enemies to move into position is not.

    Then the ammo capacity. 2k apparently did the exactly opposite what is even close to realistic and made clip size even smaller that was in Xcom 1. Which is just horse manure. Point me to a soldier with AR who wastes clip with 4 shots. And 1 grenade (without perks) oh really?

    What comes to timed missions can understand that they create sense of urgency but yet again the presentation is greatly flawed as the mission just ends stating that xcom was disbanded and everything went to hell. Then why the F"@# they send only 4 soldiers with equipment for one to mission so important that resistance and humanity ends if it fails, yet spend time designing fancy looking avenger and armour. Yes i know these are design choices by devs but to me it show how little they put thought onto this particular thing and instead made roller-coaster ride out of turn based tactical game.

    I might be able to live with some of the choices made while developing this game but the condition it was released is just shameful. I can't understand how it runs so poorly (i could play Fallout 4 without problems) and has so many bugs and yet it looks just the same as xcom 1. Seems that every site that reviewed it and gave max scores have forgotten that not everyone has ultra gaming rig and developers have forgotten to optimize this because of how scalable pc is. In that regard i would've liked to see console version as that would've forced devs to optimize this a bit.

    All in all.
    + idea behind the game

    - Presentation (enemy movement during our turn, ammo clips size, equipment capacity, shooting thru walls, etc)
    - Bugs and glitches    … Expand
  62. Hfx
    Jul 11, 2016
    2
    This game forces a player to rush from point A to B as fast as possible and discourages actual tactical gameplay.

    Rush. Get spotted. reload. Rush. Get spotted. reload. Rush, etc The Bad -Almost every single mission in on a timer. -Soldiers take ages to heal. -When you're not in a timed mission the main game itself is on a timer. -Bosses are not bound by turns The Good: -I    This game forces a player to rush from point A to B as fast as possible and discourages actual tactical gameplay.

    Rush. Get spotted. reload. Rush. Get spotted. reload. Rush, etc

    The Bad

    -Almost every single mission in on a timer.
    -Soldiers take ages to heal.
    -When you're not in a timed mission the main game itself is on a timer.
    -Bosses are not bound by turns

    The Good:

    -I bought it on the steam sale for 50% off.
    -That's-literally-it

    Conclusion:

    -This game is no fun. Hopefully future patches and mods will be able to bring back the magic of EU&EW
    -Replay XCom Enemy Within again for the 7th time. At least it'll be fun    … Expand
  63. Zahrada
    Apr 23, 2018
    2
    The game is surprisingly unatractive from the very start. The strategy element is hard to find. It all seems to happen on a predetermined route. The missions are not designed for strategy, but for the fastest way possible, which leaves no choice, but to advance the shortest and fastest way and simply rely on rng. It's probably the first UFO/XCOM game in last 24 years which I did not like.
  64. SH1
    Mar 26, 2016
    2
    I wish I could give this a higher rating than 2, but XCOM 2's core mechanic is fundamentally broken and that means that it fails as a computer game.

    A symptom of this is "scum saving", where you have to repeatedly save and load the game to get anywhere. This makes game-play a chore rather than a fun activity. You are forced to "game the system" rather than play the game. The    I wish I could give this a higher rating than 2, but XCOM 2's core mechanic is fundamentally broken and that means that it fails as a computer game.

    A symptom of this is "scum saving", where you have to repeatedly save and load the game to get anywhere. This makes game-play a chore rather than a fun activity. You are forced to "game the system" rather than play the game.

    The statistics also feels broken, even after the first patch. This could be due to the counter intuitive nature of the math involved, but it detracts from the game-play experience.

    I gave it two points for having a good graphical presentation.

    I can't say that I will go back to XCOM in the future. They will have to completely rethink the probability model, and that could remove the basic character of the franchise.    … Expand
  65. Winterspark
    Feb 6, 2016
    2
    The good:
    - nice strategic gameplay (when you get there)
    The bad: - load times are insanely long (Witcher, Tomb Raider, etc. are way faster on my machine) - Enemy difficulty seems mismatched with your crew (multiple psychic aliens on first level) - You spend so much time doing admin in your ship which takes forever, especially when you have to constantly try to skip through endless    The good:
    - nice strategic gameplay (when you get there)

    The bad:
    - load times are insanely long (Witcher, Tomb Raider, etc. are way faster on my machine)
    - Enemy difficulty seems mismatched with your crew (multiple psychic aliens on first level)
    - You spend so much time doing admin in your ship which takes forever, especially when you have to constantly try to skip through endless animations and cut scenes
    - The NPCs won't shut the f**k up
    - no controller support, rebinding keys is broken
    - difficult to keep track of things on the battlefield due to some poor colour variation

    Basically they have taken all the things that made enemy within/unknown good and buried it beneath layers and layers of pointless animations, cut scenes, loading screens. Its a bit like trying to watch a program on MTV. Its probably quite good but there is so much filler and padding it ends up being a waste of time.    … Expand
  66. PsychoJonny
    Mar 8, 2016
    2
    I love X COM overall, since the original ones, I even somewhat excused Bureau Declassified, but this game is a nightmare of performance issues, bugs, and outright laziness. I would love this game if I could actually play it. Even on my custom gaming PC that can smoothly run the beast that is Witcher 3 on ultra settings on Xcom I lose framerate, crash out of cutscenes, and lost a 23 hourI love X COM overall, since the original ones, I even somewhat excused Bureau Declassified, but this game is a nightmare of performance issues, bugs, and outright laziness. I would love this game if I could actually play it. Even on my custom gaming PC that can smoothly run the beast that is Witcher 3 on ultra settings on Xcom I lose framerate, crash out of cutscenes, and lost a 23 hour save file to a crashing issue on the mission launch screen. I would strongly advise anyone on the fence not buy this until there have been patches to address the many issues.… Expand
  67. Callabaddie
    Feb 6, 2016
    2
    XCOM 2 is a prime example of a game development company taking an already simplified and limited game, and then taking the bulk of the assets for that game. Porting it over into a shoddily designed engine. Adding in a bunch of overlapping and clunky special effects. Failing to address development issues such as (animations actually working, good lord) - before release. And then shovelingXCOM 2 is a prime example of a game development company taking an already simplified and limited game, and then taking the bulk of the assets for that game. Porting it over into a shoddily designed engine. Adding in a bunch of overlapping and clunky special effects. Failing to address development issues such as (animations actually working, good lord) - before release. And then shoveling it out at AAA price.

    XCOM 2 is Enemy Unknown with a facelift that makes it look more like a revamped Sectoid corpse.

    The game has no real RNG. The game actively cheats to counter you. The game feels soulless and tedious. The story is just as bad, if not worse than Enemy Unknown's. It is not mechanically satisfying. It is not anything new or engaging.

    It's the same old **** for 20% more than the old ****.

    If you can get it for less than 10 dollars, it might not be a waste monetarily. It'll last you longer than a cheap fast food lunch.

    On the downside, you'll have wasted every single moment, hoping that maybe it's as good as the hype.    … Expand
  68. tsinik55
    Feb 7, 2016
    2
    The game is a complete cr@p . Why? One word: timers.

    I played first XCOM: Enemy Unknown back in 1995. That was a real gem. Often, the game was really chess-like: it forced you to plan your moves in advance, to think ahead. XCOM 2 it's more like a Counter-Strike with a save functionality: run, shoot, miss, reload, run, shoot, miss, reload... the whole concept of thinking is gone. I    The game is a complete cr@p . Why? One word: timers.

    I played first XCOM: Enemy Unknown back in 1995. That was a real gem. Often, the game was really chess-like: it forced you to plan your moves in advance, to think ahead.
    XCOM 2 it's more like a Counter-Strike with a save functionality: run, shoot, miss, reload, run, shoot, miss, reload... the whole concept of thinking is gone.

    I do not care about loading times, I do not care much about graphics. The only thing I ever want from strategy game is strategy. And in XCOM 2 there's no even slightest hint of it.    … Expand
  69. DaEzz
    Feb 9, 2016
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I wont go into the technical and optimization issues, they are well known by now by anyone playing the game. I just have to accept the fact that XCOM 2 disappoints in just about every aspect of actual gameplay it is built on.

    I played the original UFO:Enemy unknown 20 years ago. This sequel tries to fill its shoes and fails miserably. Gameplay/missions are repetetive and boring, difficulty scales poorly, and the so called "strategy" layer is nothing more then you flying around constructing radio masts and picking up crates while being pulled by the nose through the story at a pace that leaves you stressed out and frustrated. Its like the Devs want to force you to finish the playthrough as fast as you possibly can and I cant really figure out whay they were thinking in their design choices for the strategical platform.

    Strategic RNG is horrible, for example you can get well and truly ganked by what missions the ALIENS get and there is virtually nothing you can do about it regardless of how well you have played so far.

    Character customization is great though. Sometimes I find my self attending to every detail of my team for 30 minutes or so. Then I send them on another mission and someone comes back promoted to Captain.

    Now I have a squad consisting of 5 Liutenants and a Captain. Cool. Or not. Oh yeah, someone got a scratch in the latest mission, lost 1 of his 16 HP. Now he is out on medical leave for 18 Days. Ah well, plenty of more Liutenants where he came from...

    Well, you get my point. But it still blows my mind how the Devs can screw up like this given that they had the 1994 UFO:Enemy Unknown legacy to guide them and the excellent prequel XCOM to build on. So sad.    … Expand
  70. TerryMc
    Feb 12, 2016
    2
    I love this game, but it has unresolved technical issues. The biggest problem for me was the random loss of ALL my saved games. Paid good money for a game I won't play until someone tells me this is fixed.

    I really enjoyed the earlier games, and was disappointed this one is unplayable.
  71. antonix
    Feb 24, 2016
    2
    As true fan of XCOM franchise I was waiting for this game to provide me with hours of fun and entertainment. Unfortunately this is not the case with the latest installment. The big disappointment begins right from the start of the game.

    Game mechanics: Enemy units can shoot through the floors, ceilings and other objects that normally would not allow for that. This makes the whole    As true fan of XCOM franchise I was waiting for this game to provide me with hours of fun and entertainment. Unfortunately this is not the case with the latest installment. The big disappointment begins right from the start of the game.

    Game mechanics:
    Enemy units can shoot through the floors, ceilings and other objects that normally would not allow for that. This makes the whole planning and strategy a very frustrating and unenjoyable. I often left with the feeling that game developers left product 50% finished just enough to make profit from sales and let the fans go to hell.

    Balance:
    What?! There is no balance what so ever. Seriously, none. Enemy units overpowered in every mission just enough to make sure that at least half of your team dies. And it doesn't matter how well you plan and play because game mechanics and timer will do their dirty work of forcing you into a simple run-and-gun path where you just engage head-on with enemy quads and then.. then you die or fail the objective no matter what you do.
    Overall story is randomized by advent events which are even more unbalanced in terms of rewards/loses. Every mission feels like a playing roulette.

    Resources:
    Supplies are always in shortage. It is impossible to keep your squad at it is required minimum to do the next mission while your wounded soldiers are heeling. As result you send your team as a unit of 2-3 or with no gear to fight effectively overpowered AI.

    Bugs:
    Oh dear, bugs were there core concept of this game. Loading times are eternal, waiting times between actions are beyond any imagination. On top of all this you get no less lethal bugs that leave you only with one option - uninstall this garbage. One thing that will remain though - is a regret about invested time and money on this game.

    My advise:
    Stay AWAY from XCOM 2. This game is not worth even a cent. A complete fiasco from Firaxis studios.    … Expand
  72. daragard
    Feb 27, 2016
    2
    Extremely disappointing sequel to a great reboot.

    The original game did a lot of things right, but delved too much in oversimplification and catering to the console market. It was still a solid, balanced game, just not as good as the original. The sequel doesn't have a console version but is still commits all the sins of a rushed console port. In my opinion, a console version    Extremely disappointing sequel to a great reboot.

    The original game did a lot of things right, but delved too much in oversimplification and catering to the console market. It was still a solid, balanced game, just not as good as the original.

    The sequel doesn't have a console version but is still commits all the sins of a rushed console port. In my opinion, a console version probably exists, but has not been released or revealed yet because it is still looking for a publisher. You should expect poor optimization (if any), a weird mouse GUI, an abundance of bugs and glitches, and overall a disgraceful PC experience not unlike most AAA releases nowadays. For all the hate Arkham Knight got, it worked better for me at release than XCom 2 does, post-patch. There is also no reason at all for the poor framerate and extremely long loading times, as the graphics are definitively outdated and arguably worse than the prequel (probably in preparation for the inevitable iPad release), yet the performance is perhaps the worst I've seen in the last few years for a PC game.

    So, how is the game regardless of those technical 'merits' conveniently not mentioned by any and all big-media paid-for 'reviews'? Well, unfortunately the oversimplification has been fully embraced and turned up to eleven. Now the game only accepts a single play style (what we could call 'the rushing YOLO') and will punish you severely for trying anything different. Almost every mission has a big on-screen turn timer or other kind of timed events forcing you to play in a certain way, and even the strategy world-map gameplay is a linear adventure thanks again to more timed events. The timers are deeply ingrained with the game design and balance, so unfortunately any mods trying to remove actually provide an even worse experience (and yes, I've tried them).

    In addition, the poorly designed RNG-based mechanics, one of the worst sins from the original, comes back with a vengeance. The combat has been tweaked in order to give way more importance to the RNG at the expense of tactical options, making the difficulty of the game essentially a random venture. Sadly, every mission is now filled with one-hit kill luck switches, including such shenanigans as having your squad leader mind-controlled by an off-screen enemy you haven't seen yet and wiping all your other teammates in a single turn (this happened to me *in the first mission* of the game). Sure, some times the RNG works in your favor, but many other times you'll miss multiple 80%+ shots in a row and get all your entire squad killed from situations that should impose no risk to you. It doesn't help when the few mechanics provided to tip the balance in your favor are introduced late in the game while the kill switches come in full force since the first mission.

    If you rush your way into tactic games, don't mind luck playing the biggest role in such games, and are in fact usually very lucky, you may still get some fun out of this game. But for the most part, you are better just playing the vastly superior prequel.    … Expand
  73. darkdrone
    Mar 4, 2016
    2
    one of the worst performing games i have ever owned my PC exceeds the requirements however i can't run this above medium to low settings,constant crashes, animations not playing properly,texture problems audio stuttering all kills what could have been a great game
  74. Cask_Fix_Sir_Us
    May 29, 2016
    2
    I've finally had it with this game. Every time Firaxis releases a patch for this game things get worse. I stopped playing it hoping it would get patched and it’s in worse shape than at release. It was already unplayable at release. Soloman really lost his way creating this un-optimized heap. He relied too much on gameplay from YouTuber’s and forgot to make a technically sound gameI've finally had it with this game. Every time Firaxis releases a patch for this game things get worse. I stopped playing it hoping it would get patched and it’s in worse shape than at release. It was already unplayable at release. Soloman really lost his way creating this un-optimized heap. He relied too much on gameplay from YouTuber’s and forgot to make a technically sound game first. How Firaxis allowed an adolescent, unqualified YouTube kid to infiltrate their business, influence design decisions, and upend their entire process is beyond me.

    Ignoring glaring technical issues in favor of one kid’s idea of fun, makes no business sense. How they got away with expending company resources chasing someone else’s dream, while damaging Sid’s good name and reputation, is just mismanagement.

    The changes being made late in the development and testing stage of XCOM 2, should have been decided long ago during discovery. Even the Agile process couldn’t adapt quickly enough to adjust to the mad rush to appease their new child master. It’s just baffling to me, the only conclusion I can come up with, Firaxis is just out of touch with their audience, got desperate and threw a Hail Mary to a spectator. I really wish I could get my money back.

    A great building is built with a plan, starting with the foundation, not the décor.    … Expand
  75. mrdollar
    Mar 28, 2017
    2
    1. Tired of missing 90% hit rates, your soldier literately misses point blank shots without cover all the time.
    2. Almost every mission is timed of 6-8 turns and you are fighting 4-5 groups of enemies.
    3. Optimization of game is really bad, even high end pc lags using higher graphics settings. 4. Bugs and glitches, you can easily cheat saving the game before enemy turn and load. It will    1. Tired of missing 90% hit rates, your soldier literately misses point blank shots without cover all the time.
    2. Almost every mission is timed of 6-8 turns and you are fighting 4-5 groups of enemies.
    3. Optimization of game is really bad, even high end pc lags using higher graphics settings.
    4. Bugs and glitches, you can easily cheat saving the game before enemy turn and load. It will skip enemy turn lol.
    5. When you counter enemy on your last move, enemy gain second turn, not fair.    … Expand
  76. Gustawosky
    Jan 29, 2017
    2
    i spent more time reloading saves files than playing the game, unfair enemies that had all the odds in their favor, you dont need skill on this game its just a coin flip that punish you hard every time that you lost
  77. ketamarine
    Feb 15, 2016
    1
    Seriously Firaxis? You call this an XCOM game? It's a watered down, terribly optimized, buggy mess of an RNG-fuelled "strategy-lite" game wrapped in once-great canon.

    I LITERALLY had more fun in the character creator BEFORE I actually started playing this game. But once my delightfully pre-built characters got gunned down for NO REASON other than BAD RNG LUCK and having to SPRINT    Seriously Firaxis? You call this an XCOM game? It's a watered down, terribly optimized, buggy mess of an RNG-fuelled "strategy-lite" game wrapped in once-great canon.

    I LITERALLY had more fun in the character creator BEFORE I actually started playing this game. But once my delightfully pre-built characters got gunned down for NO REASON other than BAD RNG LUCK and having to SPRINT through every map I lost all my remaining faith in this team.

    Not that much was left after the dumbing down hit a new peak in CIV BE (OOH let's put Civ V in space - Sci-fi's is so hot right now, we'll make a fortune!) and the abomination that was Starships.

    Pros:
    - Character creation/customization is fun
    - Concealment mechanic COULD be cool if it wasn't so EFFING ARBITRARY when you are spotted. Alien on the other side of a wall of a house that you are in while purposely sneaking around spots you??? They must have smelled you!
    - THAT is LITERALLY IT!

    Cons:
    - They killed xcom
    - Runs like TOTAL GARBAGE on a 980ti and 24gb RAM. Hangs for no reason after most actions, framerate drops to zero all the time. I can play Witcher 3 on maxed on 1080P and I am playing this STRATEGY GAME at min-low settings and still seeing huge stuttering/frame rate drops.
    - Buggy as all hell. Shooting through walls/floors. Grenades on rooftops are effing ridiculous. The aliens stand there on thin air taking no damage and laugh at you - and you take full grenade damage (3-4), then fall to the ground (3-4 more) insta-killing your elite soldiers.
    - Timers ruin all tactical depth. On higher difficulties you are forced to sprint to objectives and face RNG hell as the aliens rain down upon you. Most timer based missions are unwinnable without incessant save spamming once you know where every pod is and do the precisely correct maneuver on each turn.
    - Strategic game play is riddled with RNG nonsense. Whether you progress or fall behind is more determined by how far away the story critical missions are and by how many stupid distraction missions come up to kill and wound your soldiers. Take one tiny shot for 3 damage with your top soldier? Sorry they are "gravely wounded" for a month - which could be 2 - (literally) 8 missions depending on RNG stupidity.
    - RNG, procedurally generated maps and timer elements just seem to have been used instead of designing an actually compelling gameplay loop and story that progresses rationally.
    - I have never installed mods so quickly into a game just to make it actually playable

    Firaxis, I have been playing your (predecessor's) games since the 1990's and I've never been more disappointed in the direction of your company than I am right now.

    You killed my favourite game of all time.    … Expand
  78. Garingo41
    Oct 9, 2016
    1
    Too many timed mission, which is a boring incentive to rise pressure to the player to hurry with the mission.
    The only way to pass time on the world map is to scan some stupid **** icon that does give you a marginal improvement in currency, so youcan buy some other ****...
    1 Hour in the game and i already lost 7 people because of stupid RNG missing enemys 1 meter in front of the    Too many timed mission, which is a boring incentive to rise pressure to the player to hurry with the mission.
    The only way to pass time on the world map is to scan some stupid **** icon that does give you a marginal improvement in currency, so youcan buy some other ****...
    1 Hour in the game and i already lost 7 people because of stupid RNG missing enemys 1 meter in front of the soldiers.

    I read this game has some performance issues (cynical brit) on release date so i didn't bought it and forgot about it.
    So now, half a year later, I played this game and it still performs like ****.

    The game flow is very ugly. You don't have enough time to micromanage your base and build equipment like it was in the older games. You click on the scan icon and 1 second later another stupid mission pops up that you have to attend to, or else you will loose instantly.

    This game is not worth the money.    … Expand
  79. Paulystan
    Feb 23, 2016
    1
    So... I am and will remain a big fan of the original XCOM games which were awesome. They were clever, in depth, made you jump at times, really amazing games for the time. They were apparently also really amazing games for now. XCOM 2 is more of the same rubbish as XCOM Enemy Unknown but with some tweaks. Some of those tweaks are just down right silly at that. These new XCOM games are justSo... I am and will remain a big fan of the original XCOM games which were awesome. They were clever, in depth, made you jump at times, really amazing games for the time. They were apparently also really amazing games for now. XCOM 2 is more of the same rubbish as XCOM Enemy Unknown but with some tweaks. Some of those tweaks are just down right silly at that. These new XCOM games are just shadows of a previously excellent series and I feel ripped off that I would get excited and hopeful about them only to be dashed.

    They have some basic things going for them in their own right but I cannot help but compare them to a much more brilliant past. Bring XCOM back the way it should be, awesome.This is a veneer thin, poorly planned and frustratingly executed pile of poop.    … Expand
  80. Katrin
    Feb 7, 2016
    1
    üäAll the timers are way too annoying to enjoy the game
    - A lot of missions have a round timer.
    - People bleeding to death? Timer - People need to get to the escape shuttle ? Timer - Destroy the communication station? Timer - Destroy the Sting? Timer This game sucks so much because of the over use of timers. It is not even half as fun as part one and it is double frustrating. I    üäAll the timers are way too annoying to enjoy the game
    - A lot of missions have a round timer.
    - People bleeding to death? Timer
    - People need to get to the escape shuttle ? Timer
    - Destroy the communication station? Timer
    - Destroy the Sting? Timer
    This game sucks so much because of the over use of timers. It is not even half as fun as part one and it is double frustrating. I sitill remeber Some missions you almost have to replay because they get a lucky monstershuttle in and you come one round short. When playing again the mission gets way to easy its all a luck thing.
    I get the idea behind the bleeding to death timer but In my case whenever someone was bleeding to death there was nothing I could do about it. It was situational but there was nothing. Right now when someone is bleeding I just reload.
    I loved part one. Hate this part 2.
    Avoid at all costs when you are easy to frustrate.    … Expand
  81. PacoHolliday
    Feb 13, 2016
    1
    The game could be okay (say 5 or 6 out of 10) if it wasn't for the unacceptable performance and the many crashes and freezes, especially in the later game. Really annoying, the whole experience.
  82. ajc368
    Feb 7, 2016
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Super corto y aburrido. todas las misiones son iguales.
    Las armaduras que trae son horribles
    los graficos peores que el xcom eu. (lo jugué todo al máximo con una gtx 970)
    cero estrategia en la misiones.
    El juego no engancha en ningún momento.
    los tiempos de carga espantosos (corei7 6700k -16gbram - disco ssd)
    Lo peor que perdió su esencia. es super aburrido, todas las misiones iguales si una pisca de extrategia. la personalización de las tropas que parecía buena termino siendo una cagada mucho peor que en el enemy unknow. las armaduras son horribles apenas trae un par de cascos de muy mal gusto.
    en resumen y sacando el tema de los bug que tienen arreglo en futuros parches el juego es malo muy malo desde su concepto. y perdió en opciones en táctica y en graficos con su antecesor.    … Expand
  83. mikebrash
    Feb 10, 2016
    1
    This game feels like a beta. It's painfully obvious that a lot of technical polish was never completed. Very frequently there is a delay of up to several minutes after finishing a turn. That means a lot of staring at your screen waiting for something to eventually load. It is almost unbearable. I've had a few freezes that never recovered and I was forced to alt+tab and close the program.This game feels like a beta. It's painfully obvious that a lot of technical polish was never completed. Very frequently there is a delay of up to several minutes after finishing a turn. That means a lot of staring at your screen waiting for something to eventually load. It is almost unbearable. I've had a few freezes that never recovered and I was forced to alt+tab and close the program.

    Mission timers on so many missions is indeed irritating, but I think overall the gameplay here is good save for technical problems. This game was delayed for good reason. Looks like it should've been delayed a bit longer. Dropping 60 bucks on a game that is so blatantly buggy feels like a huge rip off. Hopefully these issues get patched...    … Expand
  84. aertonda
    Mar 27, 2016
    1
    This game makes no sense at all.
    The people that designed it are just full of themselves.
    You can't sneak, lure them in because you have 3 turns left before the end of the game. This stupid mind control against which there is nothing you can do. I am just so appalled at the degrading level of intellect of the US, I think "zombie apocalypse" is already here. Because more than 40% at    This game makes no sense at all.
    The people that designed it are just full of themselves.
    You can't sneak, lure them in because you have 3 turns left before the end of the game.
    This stupid mind control against which there is nothing you can do.
    I am just so appalled at the degrading level of intellect of the US, I think "zombie apocalypse" is already here. Because more than 40% at least can no longer think and expect to be guided like blindfolded helpless babies. This title shows the rising stupidity of our civilization. There are no more smart games anymore, smart talk shows, real discussions. Everything is rushed into and everything is for 1 type of personality: fat, dumb, self-assured full-of-himself retard.
    I honestly don't care about these people anymore.... So annoyed, it's impossible...    … Expand
  85. theandersons18
    Apr 24, 2016
    1
    There really isn't anything good to say about this game. I very much regret buying it. All the strategy elements have been stripped away in favor of what can only be a future iPhone port. Almost every single mission is now artificially shortened by a forced turn timer that leaves absolutely no time to finish the objective. While I'm sure this length of level would be perfect for playing onThere really isn't anything good to say about this game. I very much regret buying it. All the strategy elements have been stripped away in favor of what can only be a future iPhone port. Almost every single mission is now artificially shortened by a forced turn timer that leaves absolutely no time to finish the objective. While I'm sure this length of level would be perfect for playing on the bus or waiting at the DMV, but as a tactical game it falls very short of what people want. The game play now is painfully frustrating as you are sprinting to the other side of the map to finish the objective and then to the evac site all while dodging through hidden groups of enemies. People will claim realism or whatever else to defend this failed game but honestly we are to assume they started deleting files before they knew we even got there or were about to finish uploading data minutes before the team arrived? This game seems to have ran out of ways to challenge players and just resorted to cheating enemies, a shoddy RNG and very very very limited time to muddle through their cheap levels. I simply cannot express how much I dislike this game. I wouldn't wish this game on my worst enemy, please please do not support these developers. They've destroyed the series in favor a future iPhone game. There are much better, less frustrating games out there more deserving of support.… Expand
  86. quikesan
    Nov 25, 2017
    1
    Frustrating. That's the word that describes the game.
    I loved the first original Xcom, liked very much the Firaxis Xcom reboot.
    This one is not fun to play. The strategy tries to be the same as the original: research, build, so on. But in this case it doesn't make much sense. Excavate the ship to make more rooms? Why? Because the construction system has to be the same but this time    Frustrating. That's the word that describes the game.
    I loved the first original Xcom, liked very much the Firaxis Xcom reboot.
    This one is not fun to play. The strategy tries to be the same as the original: research, build, so on. But in this case it doesn't make much sense. Excavate the ship to make more rooms? Why? Because the construction system has to be the same but this time inside a ship, not a base?
    The interface is messy and you don't really understand the mechanics of what is going on. What do I have to scan? Do the missions on the map disappear? What is scanning the base for? Why there are
    The combat gets screwed because of the short limit times on most of the missions. Conceal is pretty useless because you have to rush to whatever you have to deactivate.
    With the DLC you get new enemies, but the Kings are ABSURDLY overpowered, and it's totally absurd that apparently they appear in missions randomly.
    I just cant keep going. Screw this game.    … Expand
  87. TheFrog
    Oct 26, 2019
    1
    Picture ugly-drawn graphics straight out of the PS2 era, and micro levels that still take longer to load than a sprawling open world with 100x the detail (my gods, loading takes AGES).
    The game consists of a gauntlet where your soldiers face superior numbers of superior enemies with far superior combat capabilities. Your snipers will almost never hit anything and cannot see an enemy    Picture ugly-drawn graphics straight out of the PS2 era, and micro levels that still take longer to load than a sprawling open world with 100x the detail (my gods, loading takes AGES).
    The game consists of a gauntlet where your soldiers face superior numbers of superior enemies with far superior combat capabilities. Your snipers will almost never hit anything and cannot see an enemy furthe than 6 meters. Your gunner deals minimal damage. Your scout is pointless, for stealth only applies to your very first attack. The specialist will heal you once per mission. Meanwhile enemies reanimate the dead, panic your troops (this may also occur if one of your soldiers gets hit!), take control of your soldiers, turning them into enemies that fire on your own troops. They pull your soldiers in a death grip that damages them, keep dealing damage and takes them in the middle of the enemies.
    The enemy spots you during their turn? You are in trouble. You spot the enemy? They get a free turn allowing them to disperse and get to cover before you can do anything. After a mission, your soldiers will be wounded, shaken and whatnot, introducing more handicaps for the next.
    Hitting is based on a RNG, so you often miss three times in a row even with an 80% chance to hit. It’s ridiculously easy to lose a soldier, and you only have four.
    Shouldn’t games be fun?    … Expand
  88. apjs
    Jun 9, 2020
    1
    The game is much worse than Enemy Unknown - which I loved. The performance is very poor even if you run it on a gaming PC with very good hardware. The level design is not good. You can shoot and fight through solid walls, pick up squad mates from the other side of a wall etc. The voiceovers are completely random. You will ge the "running low on ammo" voiceover from a soldier with *full*The game is much worse than Enemy Unknown - which I loved. The performance is very poor even if you run it on a gaming PC with very good hardware. The level design is not good. You can shoot and fight through solid walls, pick up squad mates from the other side of a wall etc. The voiceovers are completely random. You will ge the "running low on ammo" voiceover from a soldier with *full* ammo. The difficulty is very weird. The normal missions are super easy even on the hardest difficulty. And then the final mission is barely beatable on normal difficulty. The problem is the difficulty spike at the end. Either make it continuously harder each mission or leave the difficulty the same. But it is very frustrating if you beat all regular missions on hard withe a flawless or excellent score and for the final mission, you barely beat it after reducing the settings to normal difficulty.… Expand
  89. Alexrouz
    Apr 21, 2022
    1
    I have played this game for over 50 hours. At first I loved this game for the setting, level design and soldiers, I considered this game to be good and that it would become one of my favorites even then. But with every 5 hours of playing, I learned how terrible the gameplay of the game is and that this is one of the worst games I have ever played. Spoilers are minimal. 1) Even afterI have played this game for over 50 hours. At first I loved this game for the setting, level design and soldiers, I considered this game to be good and that it would become one of my favorites even then. But with every 5 hours of playing, I learned how terrible the gameplay of the game is and that this is one of the worst games I have ever played. Spoilers are minimal. 1) Even after releasing a large-scale addition to the game, the developers did not remove the huge randomness in shooting, when the machine gunner at point-blank range in 1-2-3 cells has a low chance of hitting and how miserable it looks in the game when he misses a huge alien that is standing right in front of him. 2) Bugs. They are everywhere. Bugs with shooting animations, bugs when the game is paused when there is a lot of shooting from spectator modes, bugs with grenade explosions, bugs with the abilities of the chosen ones, bugs when using engineers in the power relay. What the developers were doing preparing the addition to the game is unclear. 3) Stealth. It doesn't work normally. When successfully using stealth and bypassing enemy points, patrols at some point begin to go towards the player for no reason, and this happens all the time during missions with penetration to specific points. No logic, no development. Complete failure of the mechanics. 4) The worst is the sequence of moves, which is not reset if you are given an additional move of the last soldier for killing (for example), but the game does not allow you to do this and at that moment a plot event occurs (for example, the resurrection of the chosen one) and the game takes your turn, making a full one progress in the opponent's event, and you get back your half-one move left only for moving. As a result, the enemy makes literally 2 moves, until you absolutely could not do anything and this one does not depend on you in any way. Worst turn based game design I've ever seen in the history of gaming. 5) There is absolutely no tactics. It all comes down to random whether the enemy will hit through the cover / pass the stun / miss. The computer opponent does both completely stupid actions and brilliant ones at the same time, absolutely killing all the seriousness of what is happening, which you look at with laughter. Perhaps this is normal if you play on a low difficulty and score on logic and realism, but this is not interesting for experienced players. 6) Terrible development of the fog of war, when, for example, the Wanderers are close to Advent (which they also attack as a player), but until you open the fog of war, they just stand still and do nothing. And as soon as you opened it, they begin to act and then ignore the fact that they are point-blank to the enemy. They begin to stupidly run around and it looks like a clownery. And such missions also start in stealth, which absolutely destroys your tactics, since they can accidentally run out at the moment the fog of war opens and run out to you (although they break down exactly on the opponent of Advent according to the mechanics of the game when you are still in stealth). Summing up, I will say that this is only part of the problems and not all that terrible that is in the game design of the game. The game has a lot more problems and is more offensive just because the game initially seems good due to the setting and the design of the squad with the levels of locations. To bury such potential with such terrible gameplay I have never seen. I don't recommend anyone to play this… Expand
  90. Scritty
    Feb 6, 2016
    0
    Sneak into enemy base undetected after spending hours on a flight. Suddenly (again) you hear "Right we have 8 turns (2 minutes) to get in and out. No recce has been done, so rush in, press a button/hack a terminal/free a dweeb - whatever then rush out again. 1.2.3 TANK RUSH
    That is not tactical, it's not clever. it's
    NOT WHAT GUERILA WARFARE IS IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM Real guerilla    Sneak into enemy base undetected after spending hours on a flight. Suddenly (again) you hear "Right we have 8 turns (2 minutes) to get in and out. No recce has been done, so rush in, press a button/hack a terminal/free a dweeb - whatever then rush out again. 1.2.3 TANK RUSH
    That is not tactical, it's not clever. it's
    NOT WHAT GUERILA WARFARE IS IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM

    Real guerilla warfare is 90% about gathering the intelligence, setting the trap and getting into position

    YES... the actual firefight may be short and sharp, but the preparation is absolutely paramount - every rime

    There is no prep in this game. No time. On many maps the maths of the distance and your squads movement limit barely allows you to reach the objective at a full sprint.

    Ready steady TANK RUSH!!!!

    No guerilla warfare is fought like that. Not from a guerilla group that expects their troops to fight more than one battle it isn't. Recon, planning, set up then a short fire fight then out.
    Mad rush to objective is not the way small forces fight against large ones anywhere - ever.

    Why do they rely on this timer over and over again?
    Because the enemy AI is risibly poor and the sense of urgency and tension is completely and 100% down to the timer in the early game
    Later in the game enemies have uber HP levels (so the programmer typed a bigger number into the enemy HP when designing the game .. yeah, great - top strategy... yawn)
    Then their are the faces of your troops. OMG. Like melted waxworks. The extra detail only show cases how damn ugly they all are. YEUCH!!
    Real disappointment, Terrible design decisions destroyed the franchise for a second time after the Interceptor did almost 20 years ago.
    What a shame.    … Expand
  91. Zurpak
    Feb 7, 2016
    0
    1-everyone shooting through the cover (pistols doing max dmg through the wall)
    2-impossible line of sight (your unit in the middle the roof can shoot to enemy who is standing below youright next to the wall)
    3-mindcontrol and grab by thin man with no risonable range (your unit can be grabed from one end of the map o another end even through walls same with mindcontrol) 4-turn limits    1-everyone shooting through the cover (pistols doing max dmg through the wall)
    2-impossible line of sight (your unit in the middle the roof can shoot to enemy who is standing below youright next to the wall)
    3-mindcontrol and grab by thin man with no risonable range (your unit can be grabed from one end of the map o another end even through walls same with mindcontrol)
    4-turn limits killing strategy (most of the missions have such limits that preparing trap or locating your snipers is impossible, all you can do is run forward and shoot your shotgun...)
    5-terrible optimization (I7 2700k overclocekd to 4,9ghz 8gb ram 2xgtx970 msi not working smooth on high settings)
    6-terribly small maps!
    7- messy and chaotic camaign map (12 missions at the same time, constant massages from your base crew, losing control over camera because game wants to show you something, whole game feels like tutorial where you dont have control over things)
    8- cant skip any cinematics ant they are horrible quality
    9- much much worst then xcom 1 not to mention original series game feels like something you would play on your smart phone at work in toilet...
    10!!! Paid gaming magazines reviews, IT IS IMPOSSBLE THAT THIS GAME IS GETTING 9/10!
    REVIEWER MUST BE EATHER BLIND OR STUPID. I have lost 35 pounds because of those 9/10 reviews bought the game friday evening uninstalled it sunday evening. I wanted to uninstall it earlier but i thought it will get better but it dont.    … Expand
  92. ChosenOne
    Sep 13, 2017
    0
    A more than a year after release, few DLCs is out. Game still crushes after tuttorial. No word from firaxis or 2K. Nice job! It seems like 2K policy - to ignore all, even critical bugs in their products.
  93. tdebug
    Feb 14, 2016
    0
    Stopped playing already at the tutorial. Computer turn time is so long as well as game stopping to "think" after each player action for so long, that I am wondering if I suppose to have all time in the world or what exactly should I be doing during the game inactivity? Stupid it is.
  94. cabbages
    Jun 11, 2016
    0
    Its just horrible, the same is so un-balanced. Enermy 3-4x your level every mission, sometimes you need to kill 15 of these 3-4x your level enermy in under 10 turns or you lose your whole squad.

    The enermy gets free moves when you see them, so often your moving towards your objective and some of your soldiers has use there turns, then boom your guys see 6 enermy, and they all run to you    Its just horrible, the same is so un-balanced. Enermy 3-4x your level every mission, sometimes you need to kill 15 of these 3-4x your level enermy in under 10 turns or you lose your whole squad.

    The enermy gets free moves when you see them, so often your moving towards your objective and some of your soldiers has use there turns, then boom your guys see 6 enermy, and they all run to you and you have no move left, you just got to watch the enermy turn.

    Its so bad, i honestly don't know how this has been rated so highly by so called professional reviews, Over the years I've often suspected they're on the payroll of big game companies, and this feels like another one, just like all those same cod game that keeps getting 9.9    … Expand
  95. blackbird1
    Feb 6, 2016
    0
    Not bad. i played XCOM1 near 500 hours so its a big chance in playstyle.
    BUT i lreally like it so far.

    The thing i like the most is the difficulty getting ripped on Normal on the first missions is just great :) Cant wait for the next try ( i always only play Ironman)

    My only request to the DEVs is:

    PLS DONT make it easier!!!
  96. EricKiza87
    Feb 9, 2016
    0
    This game is pretty much the same game as XCOM1 with worse performance, a turn limit, bad balance, and fewer things to actually do such as build space ships. It feels like a bad mod of the original.
  97. Merku
    Feb 17, 2016
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. X-COM 2 pretty much this game franchise's ROME 2. And that's not a compliment. As others said XCOM 2 is challenging. But for all the wrong reasons. There's a Game over timer called the "Avatar project". The only way to stop or slow it down is to raid the Blacksite facilities.. Which are very heavily guarded. The other reason the game is challenging. Timed Missions. Gotta rescue an VIP. Or destroy something.. You have to do it in 10 turns or something or you auto lose.

    The story bland too. Never once is the premise explained in any sort of depth. "Oh Commander we rescued you from the aliens... Let's get to work." No "This is what happened while you were out.." You have an whiney clichie collaborator seeking redemption for a Scientist and an stereotypical cyberpunk Asian Engineer who is always bickering with said scientist. The Enemies.. Are borning. Enemies that should be tough are easy. Such as Sectopods. The first one I found I killed in a single turn. I remember in EU took like 3 or 5 turns with a full squad fully upgraded going all out. Aliens that should be weak are too tough. Sectoids. They're nasty buggers. And they're right from the bat there.

    The ending is dull with censored violence. Oh looks like that Advent trooper is about to get his face bashed in and... Cut to the bottom of the ocean for terror from the deep lead in.

    Last point the game is game breakingly buggy. Runs like cold **** Your soldiers will randomly fall through the map and die sometimes. The game crashes often. Actually the bugs are so numorous and gameplay hindering it makes Bethesda look great at debugging.    … Expand
  98. Kriss_A
    Feb 19, 2016
    0
    Currently broken. Do not buy.

    Performance issues.
    Gameplay bugs.
    Crashes.
    Is actually really light on content, certainly not worth full price.
    Pre-order exclusive DLC currently not available.

    The game is ok, it's not very good, but it's not horrible, but every single aspect outside of the core design is lacking horribly.
  99. TsukasaHiiragi
    Mar 17, 2017
    0
    Vanilla Xcom 2 4/10 /// Modded Xcom 2 6/10
    TL:DR
    In some ways, better than EU but still no way near as good as the originals and without mods to rebalance the game, you'll find it frustrating. Firaxis needs to do better with this franchise, and as always don't listen to most of the critics and 10/10 reviewers, this is strictly for the fans of the reboot. After being a fan of the    Vanilla Xcom 2 4/10 /// Modded Xcom 2 6/10
    TL:DR

    In some ways, better than EU but still no way near as good as the originals and without mods to rebalance the game, you'll find it frustrating. Firaxis needs to do better with this franchise, and as always don't listen to most of the critics and 10/10 reviewers, this is strictly for the fans of the reboot.

    After being a fan of the original trilogy, let me rephrase that as a huge fan of the originals - the reboots have angered me greatly as they have not done any justice in my personal opinion, if anything - have been a travesty to the Xcom franchise and Xcom 2 is arguably the worst because not only do you have the same cheating AI with miraculous almost impossible shots to spawning extra alien squads at the worst possible times making some missions all but impossible to add further insults.

    A large chunk of missions are timed with very tight limits making a front frontal assault the only viable option to meet the limit and that method almost always puts your prized troops at risk with each and every mission. The balance of the game is just dreadful, along with EU the enemy units out class you, and out gun and out number you forcing you to rely on guerilla style tactics and ambushes, which is good and all, until the AI decides to cheat and shoot you through walls or shoot you half way across the map with near 100% accuracy.

    Xcom 2 complicates it even more with many different units this time, not to mention some of the classic ones returning, but in a beefed up version than before - even those pesky sectoids are considerably more dangerous now, and will PSI attack you all the time, often with very high success rates. Another very major problem is related to the avatar project, the aliens can power through construction sometimes making a game over situation possible just because you miss-managed your time, or didn't discover enough ways to slow down the project in time, this aspect in Xcom 2 doesn't work very well but luckily there are enough mods to balance this.

    Time Management is a huge problem, you hardly ever have time to breath in Xcom 2 without a new 'important' mission appearing that you must do, either extract VIPS, protect the rebels, attack dark sites and the list goes on and on and you hardly get any peace without being interrupted, it gets incredibly tiresome after the 200th cookie cutter mission has forced you to abandon your supply collections.

    Xcom 2 needs a huge amount of mods to essentially balance out the game, even with major rebalances almost to the point of outright cheating, the game can still be stressful and frustrating - essentially you'll be save scumming a lot if you become attached to your favorite crew.    … Expand
  100. ChiefdruidRVnge
    Apr 7, 2016
    0
    X-Com 2 is exactly what I said it would be "just another money grab" on the Title not the quality of the game. That many people disliking the game so early speaks volumes about any game. It happened to Rome II total war and X-Rebirth! These sequels are for money grabs on the titles, squeezing every penny they can out of IGMO's for basically the same game with the furniture moved around. IX-Com 2 is exactly what I said it would be "just another money grab" on the Title not the quality of the game. That many people disliking the game so early speaks volumes about any game. It happened to Rome II total war and X-Rebirth! These sequels are for money grabs on the titles, squeezing every penny they can out of IGMO's for basically the same game with the furniture moved around. I saw it coming before it was even released. I saw it in the preview video's at YouTube. I can't believe so many didn't see it. You're just throwing your money away folks. When X-com enemy unknown came out that was an "improvement" on the old X-Com and I support it. But, everything after has just been MILKing the Donkey money and most of you have fallen for it. You're not getting much of anything new for the same full retail prices. Wake up IGMO's look what developers and publishers are doing to you. They aren't making you NEW games they are just white washing the old ones, putting on a new coat of PAINT (reskin) and moving the furniture around. Same chair just in a different spot.

    I wouldn't give 2 cents for X-Com 2 and less than that now after reading the reviews.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

8
#8 Best PC Game of 2016
6
#6 Most Discussed PC Game of 2016
19
#19 Most Shared PC Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
88

Generally favorable reviews - based on 104 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 97 out of 104
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 104
  3. Negative: 1 out of 104
  1. Wccftech
    Apr 22, 2016
    80
    Firaxis managed to improve upon the already great Enemy Unknown in almost every way, with the exception of multiplayer. Unfortunately, the shockingly bad performance prevents XCOM 2 from reaching the status of a true masterpiece.
    Read full review
  2. High-Def Digest
    Apr 10, 2016
    90
    It is a tactical experience without peer, better even than its predecessors. It is draining and agonizing, but in a good way. The high difficulty may turn off some gamers, but it’s worth every second.
    Read full review
  3. IGN Denmark
    Apr 6, 2016
    90
    XCOM 2 is a gem. There is more story in the game, and the ending does not feel as abrupt as it did in the first game.
    Read full review
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